Getting Over You
by LonelyHeart101
Summary: What if James decides he's fed up of being rejected by Lily Evans? Aided by his trusty Marauder friends James attempts to get over the love of his life and find someone new. Meanwhile can Lily get over her pride and admit that she may be falling for him?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**Yeah, don't own anything apart from Raisa Ramsey (my oc) and my slightly odd sense of humour. The genius that is J.K Rowling owns all and this is simply for my own personal entertainment.

**Getting Over You**

"POTTER!"

The terse, angry voice spat its sharp and angry sentence down into the Gryffindor Common Room, hanging in the air for a few seconds – mad and angry – before the two syllables familiar to all sixth year Gryffindors slowly solidified and crashed to earth with interest, sending fear into the hearts of everyone.

Everyone being more specifically in this case James Potter, who had reason to believe that this bloodthirsty war cry was directed at him.

"Oh God James,"

Remus Lupin looked up from his book with a sigh.

"What did you do now?"

James gulped. Audibly.

"We've only been back three days, Prongs."

Peter Pettigrew stared up at his friend in awe. Lily Evans in a rage scared the bejesus out of him, but three days into term was something of a record for his friend. Records were things to be celebrated and savoured.

The esteemed record-holder winced, choked out a: "nothing...?", and in his haste to vacate his seat and make himself disappear he tripped over a side table.

"When you phrase it as a question and trip over furniture it makes me doubt your words."

Remus winced and shrank further down into his armchair.

* * *

The words drifted down from upstairs again. 

"POTTER - YOU'D BETTER-. What do you mean count to ten Alice? I don't want to count to ten. POTTER-"

"Hide me Moony," James wailed, swiping Remus' book from his unsuspecting hand and proceeding to hold it in front of his face.

"Because I'm sure Lily won't notice that the book has grown legs," he replied dryly and not a little resignedly as yet again James was misusing his literature for his own means.

"Although it could be a _magic_ book,"

Peter nodded sagely at Remus and the Book with Legs, one of whom seemed mildly disturbed to hear this and one of them strangely delighted.

"Wormtail makes an excellent point."

A nearby chair swivelled round to reveal the softly smirking, chiselled features of the final member of the group…

Sirius Black – Marauder extraordinaire – who had until Wormtail's wise words been lurking in a corner, surveyed the scene with interest.

He was good at lurking. No, lurking wasn't the right word, because in fact Sirius Black had that quality of being able to seem perfectly placed.

James was incapable of lurking – Lily wouldn't notice him if he lurked. Of course Lily would probably prefer it if, on occasion, he did actually lurk and so leave her alone.

"Just a thought Prongs, but maybe you should stop planting things in her room,"

Sirius smiled wryly at his best friend, knowing full well that James wouldn't take a blind bit of notice of a single word that he said on the subject of Lily Evans. His sometimes-antlered friend seemed to take the view that the sure fire way to make you irresistible to women was to plant random packages on their bed. Sirius, however, took the view that if you needed to make yourself irresistible to women then you were doing something wrong, and besides -

* * *

"WELL MAYBE I DON'T WANT TO TAKE IT BLOODY EASY" 

The four Marauders flinched in turn as the voice of the flame haired siren that haunted James Potter's dreams descended her way down the stairs from the Girl's Dormitory.

James flinched because he could sense that he was about to be let in for a whole world of pain…

Remus flinched because he had a sudden flash-forward of his fellow prefect in her rage perhaps misusing literature again…

Peter flinched because, as mentioned before, Lily Evans scared the bejesus out of him…

Sirius flinched because a shaking Peter has dropped a piece from Wizards Chess on his foot…

Anyway, after the red dragon of anger from her dorm, descended a pale and frightened Alice, carrying a hefty red tome, entitled:

"_Seeing Red: How to Deal with Anger without Alienating and Scaring Everyone Around You…" _

"Hi Lily," James gushed.

A collective intake of breath could be heard after this from the on looking crowd. It was as if they could sense that Lily Evans did not pop down to the Common Room just to say 'hi'.

Lily wrenched the book from Alice's unsuspecting hands (something that Remus highly sympathised with) and chucked it at James' head, letting out a wild yell of frustration when the Chaser and star player of Gryffindor's Quidditch team shockingly managed to dodge the book. Funny how alike in weight heavy books are to Bludgers.

"Sorry – reflex reaction." James winced apologetically at the red haired love of his life. "If you want I can hand you back the book and you can have another try?"

The wild "No!" let out by Sirius/Remus was necessary given that Lily was quite probably considering this as a viable course of action. As it was she let out a shriek, causing several first years to scatter.

"Do you think I like being constantly angry Potter?"

"But you _are_very sexy when you're angry"

Sirius smacked him upside on the head.

"Come on Lily – remember what the book said,"

Alice pleaded, wringing her hands and silently wishing that her boyfriend Frank Longbottom wasn't off in some greenhouse in the Hogwarts grounds doing extra credit Herbology and instead was right next to her helping her with her very trying friend.

"Sod the book Alice."

Lily threw her hands up in the air with a flourish. "Sod the bloody book."

On a roll now she continued, pacing up and down the width of the Common Room for dramatic effect.

"Whoever wrote the book obviously doesn't know _him_._He_deserves a whole book all for _himself."_

At each reference to _him_ and _himself_James perked up considerably. Lily rarely addressed him as anything but "POTTER", "ASSHOLE" and "PRAT", so "_him"_ made a change.

"Lily, if you could just tell us what the problem is here…" Remus begun in an infuriatingly calm voice.

"PROBLEM? PROBLEM?" she shrieked, each repetition sending her voice even further into the realms of that special pitch that only dogs and some well trained cats can hear.

"The only problem is 'El Doofus' over there," she pointed at James, who waved sheepishly.

"SIRIUS," squeaked Alice as she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the Dog-Star moniker-ed Marauder had jumped out of his seat and was reaching for his wand.

"He is _not_ a Doofus," Sirius growled, and he probably would have been content to add a lot more than just words to the argument had the portrait door not crashed open at that very second.

* * *

The portrait door slid open and a petite, dark haired girl tumbled through –the tumbling here coming from the fact that a small, random Gryffindor with glasses had his hand on her back and was pushing her forward. 

"Make it stop," he breathed, pointing a quivering hand towards the impending Armageddon by the Dormitory stairs.

"This had better be good," said dark haired girl murmured under her breath, smoothing down her simple tee and making her way towards the tableau of fellow seventeen year olds.

"Superwoman coming through," she muttered again, motioning with her hands for the small crowd of onlookers to part for her. Lily and James fights had a similar quality to car crashes in that they were full of impact and morbidly fascinating.

"Raisa!"

Alice greeted her friend with a hug that suggested more the greeting of a long lost friend than simply a friend she had seen half an hour ago at dinner.

"Told you the book wouldn't work Ali,"

Raisa Ramsey replied with a sigh as she caught sight of the poor, mangled book sprawled by the fireplace that had been an unsuccessful Christmas present gifted to Lily no doubt by someone hoping to curb her temper. "You owe me a galleon."

Turning away from her gaping friend Raisa now addressed the assorted crowds who had gathered for their evening entertainment.

"Okay, show's over folks"

Raisa frowned as it seemed that the Gryffindor onlookers didn't seem that inclined to listen to someone who was planning on cutting off their supply of fun.

"SCRAM THE LOT OF YOU."

Raisa mouthed a grateful "thank you" to Sirius, who tipped her a wink as he jumped down from the table with a flourish and watched the onlookers disappear. She composed herself quickly and then turned to the scene she had been brought to fix…

* * *

"Lily honey, what did James do this time, and James what nice gesture of yours is Lily now not appreciating?" 

The red-headed one turned to her friend, seemingly more subdued now her anger had had a chance to settle.

"He wrote me a card."

"Well that's nice of him…isn't it?" Raisa backtracked with a question when she saw the look of pure horror on her best friend's face.

Alice intervened at this point and handed her peacekeeping friend the offending item.

Raisa took the proffered card with a sigh and began to read:

"_To Lily Evans,_

_How was your holiday? Mine was good and I hope yours was too. Did you get my Christmas present? I don't know whether you did or not because you didn't owl me back like the gift card said to but I don't mind as long as you got it. Did you get it? Did you?_

_Lots of Love_

_James Potter_

_P.S Will you go out with me?"_

Both Sirius and Remus (who hadn't seen the card because James had guessed correctly that had he showed them they would have tried to talk him out of sending it) let out ill-concealed snorts.

"Lil', I don't see the problem,"

"Neither do I," James interjected with a frown.

Lily spluttered, opened and closed her mouth several times without a single sound coming out, before flouncing back up to her dorm.

A collective sigh was let out by all those still present in the Common Room as the vast majority of it's occupants consecutively decided that now would be a good time to do a lot of things they had been meaning to do but had never got around to.

Lily/James arguments kind of made you appreciate the value of your life more.

* * *

Raisa sank into a nearby chair with a contented sigh – peacekeeping sure took a lot out of you, and there was nothing she liked better than an empty Common Room.. 

"Nice job Ramsey"

Okay so not completely empty then…

"Black," she nodded in greeting.

He was doing the staring thing again. God she hated it when he did the staring thing.

"That was some pretty impressive crisis management you pulled just now."

"Thanks." Raisa grinned

"Are you noticing that her reasons for being pissed off with James are becoming increasingly irrational?"

Raisa's head shot up. "Do you think she's softening up to him?"

Sirius shrugged.

"She'll never admit to it though." Raisa sighed

He chewed this statement over in his head for a few moments before replying with a grin: "I can't think of anyone else who would have him"

They sat in silence for a few minutes, contemplating women who could survive living with James...

* * *

"So you're carrying on with Defence then?" 

Raisa lifted her head slightly.

"Um, yeah," she replied.

"You know, 'dark times' and all," she finished, wrapping the phrase snugly in air quotes.

"If you need a hand with the practical stuff again like last year you know where I am."

Sirius jumped up from his seat and mock-saluted his Gryffindor classmate goodnight.

He paused for a moment at the stairs before turning round with a smirk...

"I take it you don't want us to tell Evans that you put the package up there for Prongs then?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

All in all breakfast hadn't been a very cheerful affair:

James was miserable and he was very determined that, as good friends, the rest of the Marauders should share in his unhappiness.

"I'm going to die alone," he announced with a low, guttural moan

"Then I take it you don't want that last slice of toast," Remus plucked the bread off of his James' plate before he had time to protest.

"Evans isn't the only girl on the planet." Sirius surveyed James with a frown.

"She's the only girl for me," he replied, pouting.

Sirius snorted. "Finally - the reason why Evans refuses to go out with you…"

James looked up at his friend hopefully when he trailed off

"– cheesy lines like that," Sirius ended triumphantly.

James glared. "Do not make light of my situation."

Sirius fought back the urge to reply that it was impossible to make light of anything at all when James had a face like _that_ on him, but he decided against it on the grounds that he wanted to be a good friend.

"Where's Wormtail?" James demanded, suddenly really missing his small friend whom he knew would be very sympathetic to his situation. Peter tended to be sympathetic and supportive of most things James did - however stupid the things in question happened to be.

"He's still a little … erm … sore, after someone insisted on using him as a distraction last night." Remus looked pointedly at Sirius, who shrugged.

They fell into silence as they each contemplated whether discomfiting a member of their gang was worth the fun of the rather interesting prank they pulled last night…

"I love her," James stated with a rather worrying sincerity

"You're seventeen – you don't know what love is," Remus replied blithely as he helped himself to some more tea.

"Moony's right," Sirius agreed with a nod of the head.

The glasses-adorned Marauder let out a 'harrumph':

"At least I wasn't sitting there making googly eyes at Raisa," he muttered into his porridge mutinously.

Sirius looked up sharply. At least I'm making them at a girl I could have," he bit back.

Remus looked up in surprise at this statement. As a close friend of the girl in question he felt it was his duty to inform Sirius that Raisa herself would be the judge of that. He was prevented from doing this however, by the sudden breakout of hostilities between his two friends.

"TAKE IT BACK."

"Jesus, James," Sirius groaned as the bespectacled one seemed to have abandoned all normal conduct in fights and had proceeded to tug very hard on Sirius' ear.

"What on earth is going on here?"

The Marauders (minus one) looked up into the face of Professor McGonagall, who did not look amused. (The fact that she had had to sit next to Slughorn all through breakfast listening to him moan about that _someone_ had covered the Slytherin Common Room with silly string hadn't helped her mood either).

"I was trying to stop them." Remus interjected passively as he took a slow sip of his cup of tea and stood up in order to direct Sirius and James out of the Great Hall, and so out of trouble.

"Yes, well, run along to class now." McGonagall walked away, a little disconcerted by having witnessed a fight that consisted chiefly of ear tugging and not of throwing jinxes around.

As they reached the door of the Great Hall Remus suddenly turned to face his friend.

"This may seem like an inconsiderate question James…" began Remus with a frown of parental concern. "…but how exactly did you think Lily would react to the card?"

* * *

Lily stared at her reflection in the mirror and tried to tease her long red hair into a vaguely presentable ponytail. Like most seventeen year old girls she was constantly picking faults with her appearance, and today was no exception –

Her hair refused to lie flat on her head, insisting on sticking up at all sort of peculiar angles…

…Potter's hair stuck up at all sorts of peculiar angles too…

Damn - she wasn't supposed to think about Potter. She wasn't supposed to think about Potter and yet there he was, cluttering up her brain with his messy dark hair and infuriatingly puppy-dog like eyes.

"Want some breakfast or would you rather continue battering the hairbrush?"

Lily's head snapped round with a start and she frowned at the poor and unsuspecting hairbrush that she had been unconsciously battering against the table imagining that it was Potter's head.

"He's like one of those dolls with the string you pull at the back," Lily murmured, still not fully realising Raisa's presence in the room.

"Well that's certainly original," Her friend grinned at her, proffering a pastry folded in a napkin.

"I…I mean Potter…" she trailed off, realising that to continue speaking would dig her into an even bigger hole.

Raisa eagerly handed her friend a fresh pastry and sat down cross-legged on her bed, ready to listen intently. "Do tell."

Rai fought back the urge to laugh as Lily used her fingers to frame her eyes with mock James Potter glasses and wheedled out a mildly pathetic "Will you go out with me?"

"He does _not_ sound like that," she protested quickly.

"WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM?"

Raisa backed away from her friend sharply.

"Sorry," Lily cringed sheepishly. "Don't know what can over me there."

Raisa munched on her pastry thoughtfully…

"I always thought those dolls were kind of cute."

Lily rolled her eyes, causing Raisa to giggle, and in the process spraying pastry crumbs all over the dorm's communal dressing table.

"Oh God Rai you are _so_ cleaning that up." Lily glared at her friend.

Raisa wrinkled her nose. "It's not my fault that you're such a neat freak."

"A stick of rock…!" Lily pounced on her new analogy with vigour. "Cut him open and, yet again, 'will you go out with me?" She repeated this with the same patented 'James Potter voice' as before.

"I like rock," commented Alice, as she breezed through from the bathroom whilst buttoning her shirt.

Lily let out an infuriated harrumph and turned back to her ministrations at the dressing table.

Raisa offered Alice a pastry and frowned when she refused.

"Alice honey, for the last time: it stands to reason that if you're as thin as a rake then you _don't_ need to go on a bloody diet."

Alice rolled her eyes at Raisa. "Yeah, yeah. We have to get to class. Don't want to be late for Slughorn now do we?"

At this the three girls simultaneously made a gagging motion with their hands.

With a sigh Lily picked up her book bag, quickly smoothed her hair down in the mirror and went to join her friends.

Before she made it down the stairs, Raisa turned back around to Lily and gazed at her, head tilted to the side:

"Get to know him, and maybe you just might like him."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:**Yet again, none of the characters belong to me and this is all for entertainment only.

**Chapter 3 Part 1**

The Hogwarts Grounds looked so peaceful in autumn...

James didn't feel peaceful. He hadn't been sleeping at all well recently, and the red headed siren was once again haunting his every waking moment.

Rather shockingly she had been avoiding him like the plague since the incident at the beginning of term that Peter had now begun to call 'Card-gate'.

He couldn't say he blamed Lily, because he knew full well that what he did was really, really stupid. Contrary to popular belief he was fully aware that he had the tendency to act like a bit of a prat sometimes, and rather unfortunately Lily always seemed to bear the brunt of his prat-like behaviour.

…What he did wish was that he could stop seeing her even when she wasn't there...

It was as though Lily Evans was surgically attached to his retina, burned onto the inside of his eyelids …

She was like a sunspot. Yes. Lily was like a sunspot, because James could blink a million times and yet he swore he could still see her out of the corner of his eye.

(He had relayed this analogy to Padfoot several times and each time Sirius had continued to tell him that he was finally losing his already precarious grip on his sanity).

He blinked twice– nope, still there and still with gorgeous red hair.

James blinked hard again, but he only succeeded in dislodging his glasses from the bridge of his nose. He watched them slide slowly down the slope of his facial appendage until they reached its tip and he began to look like Madam Pince. He shuddered.

A polite cough interrupted his reverie…

James turned round with a start and looked right into the face of the Sunspot's best friend.

"Hiya Blinky." Raisa grinned and leaned against the wall with her hands in her skirt pockets, mimicking James' pose.

"Why so sad?" She continued with a grin still affixed to her features, despite already knowing the answer. Raisa had had a little chat with Remus during a study session for Ancient Runes, and together they had come to the basic agreement that James might snap out of his period of darkness if everyone who came into contact with him acted as manically happy as possible. Raisa wasn't all that sure it would actually work, but the way she saw it anything was worth a try in order to cheer up her messy haired friend.

"She doesn't love me." At this the grin fell a little from Raisa's face due to the fact that at this moment in time James was probably right.

"We'll make her love you," Raisa assured emphatically and with a lot more confidence than she actually felt.

"Really?"

"Yes, now I'll see you in class, alright?" Raisa asked as she turned towards the staircase wondering how the hell she was going to get herself out of this particular hole.

James nodded her and returned to staring moodily out of the window. Class didn't start for another one minute and thirty two seconds. Sure Potions was in the dungeons but he could make it from the third floor to there in thirty two seconds…probably.

* * *

If Sirius Black was good at lurking then Severus Snape was a master at it – mostly because people never bothered to see if he was there in the first place. As such, he was able to accumulate a lot of information that people didn't know he had. 

Lily hadn't been exactly been on great terms with him since the whole 'mudblood' incident at the end of fifth year that he was not proud of at all. He couldn't say he blamed her or that he'd take it back if he had the chance, but this was interesting…her best friend was consorting with Potter.

Snape was under no misconceptions – he knew full well that Lily would never ever love him, but he hoped to God he could put off her falling for Potter for as long as possible. He knew it was inevitable of course (practically everyone but Lily did), but he saw no reason why he shouldn't try to throw a spanner in the works, so to speak.

He pulled out a small, leather-bound notebook from his pocket and took out a quill - this was very interesting…he would store it for future use…

* * *

"Mr Longbottom and…Mr Pettigrew…" 

Professor Slughorn chose to ignore the tortured sigh that came from both Frank and Peter at the news that they were to be Potions Partners for the rest of the year.

Slughorn had spent the last fifteen minutes doling out pairs and, as evidenced by the slightly disastrous pairing of Frank 'I only took this class to spend more time with my girlfriend' Longbottom and Peter 'I look at cauldrons and they explode' Pettigrew, he wasn't doing a great job.

Regardless he ploughed on…

"Mr Lupin … and Miss Black."

Remus let his head fall to his desk with a bang and Sirius and James cast sympathetic glances at him whilst simultaneously high-fiving each other under the desk. Bellatrix Black came only marginally below Snivellus Snape on the list of undesirable Potions Partners.

"…Mr Black…"

Here Slughorn took a few moments to gaze lovingly at one of his favourite and most able students. The majority of the female of the class (and some of the males) held their breath too - the enigma that was Sirius Black was desirable property.

"…Mr Black … and Miss Ramsey"

Raisa looked up from her seat with a start.

"…Miss Evans and…Mr Potter"

"NOOOO!!!!"

Raisa was snapped back to reality by the cry of her friend. The rest of the class, who up until that moment had been dozing and not really paying attention, also perked up excitedly. Drama in Professor Slughorn's lessons was very hard to come by.

"Miss Evans my dear – is there a problem?" Slughorn peered at his favourite student.

"PROBLEM? PROBLEM?" The red head leant forward in her seat and came very close to having the tubby Potions Master by the scruff of the neck (Raisa's discrete hand pulling her back being the only thing preventing her from doing this).

From the back of the room Peter jammed his fingers in his ears and began to sing as the screeching reached ear-splitting pitch. He hated discord. It brought back uncomfortable memories of spending Christmases at home with his Vesuvius-tempered mother.

"Come on now Lily my dear – this isn't negotiable. I'm relying on you to give Mr Potter a hand." Slughorn protested somewhat bemusedly, really not used to his prized students turning on him like this.

"God knows Potter needs all the help he can get," the Professor muttered this last sentiment under his breath as he backed away from Lily's desk with a gulp.

He probably wouldn't be able to meet any more famous people if one of his students had ripped his throat out.

"She'll do it, sir."

Slughorn breathed a sigh of relief at the reassuring words of the small, pale girl who was good with plants – the one whose name he couldn't quite recall but who he knew was having romantic relations with that Longbottom boy who 'accidentally' blew up six of his cauldrons last year.

Lily slumped back in her seat mutinously, vowing never again to grace one of that fat oaf's parties, and trying to ignore the fact that Potter had now sat next to her and was emitting a pleasantly warm body heat.

* * *

Just want to say again a big thanks to everyone who has reviewed -who doesn't love feedback?!! 

Also, Chapter 3.2 should be up very soon – it might not be clear why I split it up, but there is a reason behind it.

Hope you like 3.1!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything apart from Raisa

**Chapter 3 Part 2**

Lily was now feeling quite sheepish after her earlier outburst.

Her feelings towards James Potter were common knowledge to all Gryffindor Sixth years (and actually most of Hogwarts in general), but she still didn't like losing control so spectacularly in public. Potter seemed to have that kind of an effect on her…

Lots of things seemed to have an effect on her lately. Lily was quite aware that most of her classmates were increasingly coming to the conclusion that she was some kind of a maniac. This latest incident probably wouldn't be persuading them anything different.

In general, _Draught of Living Death_ seemed somehow appropriate for her feelings right now. Briefly she noticed that Raisa was working with Sirius. She would have to warn her friend about Black later. For now though, Potter was grinning inanely at her, and the thought of having to carry him for a whole year in Potions filled her with dread.

James, on the other hand, couldn't believe his luck. Ever since their …ahem…encounter at the beginning of term Lily had been distinctly more frosty than usual towards him. The chance to have her all to himself for a whole hour filled him with barely disguised glee.

"So Lily dearest, you grab the ingredients and I'll chop?"

Lily stared at him blankly.

"I said the 'Lily dearest' part aloud didn't I?" James cringed.

* * *

Meanwhile, Raisa was having a lovely time. After she had got over the initial embarrassment of having to reveal to Sirius that a certain Miss Lily Evans was the only reason she had scrapped through her Potions practical for O.W.L.s, they had begun to get along very well indeed. 

Sirius – despite what his marks in the subject would suggest – was actually a very capable Potions students and an even more willing and patient teacher. Raisa had to admit that it made a pleasant change to be partnered with someone who didn't have crazy control freak tendencies and actually let her do things.

She had the sense last year that James and Remus had shanghaied him into giving her a hand with Defence against the Dark Arts, but Sirius seemed relaxed now, as though he was actually enjoying her company.

He caught her wrist gently. "You don't want to do that."

"I don't?" she replied gingerly, a little disconcerted by his soft touch, her hand hovering over their cauldron.

"Not unless you want our work to explode…" Sirius paused,

"…come to think of it that might be quite…hey don't look at me like that, I was kidding."

"Do you think that they're ever going to come to their senses?" Raisa murmured, gesturing over to the bench where Lily and James were working together in an unconventional harmony which consisted of James chattering away animatedly and Lily looked determinedly in the other direction, treating him as though he were Medusa and she would turn to stone by actually facing him.

Raisa turned round to address Sirius and found herself blushing hotly when she realised he was looking not at the modern day throwback to Greek Mythology, but at her instead.

"You're basically a good person, aren't you?"

His question threw her a little and she looked up from her chopping with a start. "'Good' is kind of a relative term, isn't it?"

Her reply threw him a little too.

* * *

She had to admit that Potter had surprised her. 

"Go on – say it." James prompted her with an encouraging nod of his head.

Lily spluttered. "Say what?"

"You thought I would be an awful partner."

A little embarrassed for even thinking it now and even more perturbed that Potter seemed to have developed mind reading skills. Lily shook her head furiously:

"Of course not, I mean I - . I didn't even give it any thought." She insisted, lying through her teeth.

James was about to make a response something along the lines of 'I beg to differ', when Lily was distracted by something:

"Potter, why does it look like someone threw up in our cauldron?"

"That's puce," he stated authoritatively, finding it particularly adorable that Lily was asking him questions.

The Adorable One suddenly felt slightly nauseous and checked her textbook just to make sure that the horrible thought flitting through her mind right now wouldn't be there to stay.

It was.

"POTTER!!"

Uh oh.

* * *

"Chin up honey," Raisa gave Remus a sympathetic hug as he trudged over to their desk, feeling more than a little drained after having to spend an hour in close contact with the serpent better known as Bellatrix. 

"Sirius, are you free after dinner?"

Sirius surveyed dirty blond-haired girl who had just approached him with a look of barely disguised disdain. "No."

"But-"

"No."

"Don't you – "

"No."

With that the girl evidently decided to try her luck elsewhere, and so she walked off with a sigh.

Remus noted Raisa's confused expression and offered this titbit of information by way of explanation: "Sirius doesn't date."

She couldn't help but feel a small swoop of disappointment at this. She couldn't help but wonder also why Sirius was now deliberately avoiding looking her in the eye.

Remus, perceptive person that he was, noted something in her face and was about to discretely pick her up from this when there came a yell from the end of the classroom

"LILY, PUT THE CHAIR DOWN,"

The three Gryffindors turned round with a start, and Raisa automatically began to walk backwards towards Alice's frightened screams.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE TAMPERED WITH YOUR BOOK?!!"

Raisa jumped visibly: "Maybe I'd better go and…"

Sirius and Remus watched with interest as she now sprinted towards the site of the discord.

Or rather, Remus watched Sirius watch Raisa with interest as she sprinted towards the discord.

He sighed. "Padfoot, I think we need to talk…"

* * *

Please read and review! Also...Sirius and Remus' little discussion is now up as a one-shot, the link should be in my profile under **Getting Over You: Delicate** It would be great if you could read and review that too, tell me what you think and all. Who knows, if I get a strong enough response I might plan some more moments that don't quite fit into the main fic... :) 


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:**I don't own anything apart from Raisa

**Chapter 4**

Remus Lupin sat down at his usual table nestled in a quiet corner of the library and reflected on the difficulties that came with being the central point of absolutely everything:

There was Peter, who ceased to function unless he knew Remus' opinion about absolutely everything – ranging from what colour socks to wear in the morning to the meaning of life.

James also tended to come to him a fair amount in order to moan that the love of his life did not return his sentiments and accordingly he would die alone.

Then we had Frank, who loved Alice like mad but (similar to most people) was severely intimidated by her flame-haired friend and so wanted to know if it was at all possible to maintain a relationship with someone under these pretences.

Alice would peer at him nervously and ask whether she should be worried that her boyfriend jumped five feet in the air every time Lily Evans entered a room.

Aside from chewing his ear off in Arithmancy, the love of James' life also sought Remus out at other times too in order to talk about her Potter-related problems – and for someone who claimed not to care about the guy Lily Evans seemed to have a surprisingly large amount.

Raisa also came to him occasionally, however only to inquire politely as to whether too much of his time was taken up by solving everyone else's problems. (If he didn't know her better he might even say she was slightly jealous of his role.)

She never came to him with any of her own problems though because, like Sirius, Raisa Ramsey seemed to have an unfailing belief that she could solve absolutely everything all by herself.

He could rent himself out as a psychiatrist and earn a hell of a lot of money. God knows no one else would ever want to hire a werewolf; Remus sighed to himself and opened the first page of his Ancient Runes textbook. Lycanthropic issues were best put to the side for the moment...

...Lycanthropic issues were always best put to the side...

And so Remus buried himself in the joy that was Ancient Runes (no sarcasm intended).

"I'm an attractive man, right?"

"Peter, how many times do I have to tell you –? "Remus looked up from over the top of his book, feeling more than a little irked at being interrupted.

"Oh, not Peter." Remus frowned at his interrupter.

"Definitely not Peter," the rather agitated face of James Potter replied in conformation, storing in the back of his mind that there was a very interesting conversation indeed to be had with Wormtail later.

"So Moony, d'ya think I'm hot?"

Remus surveyed James sceptically. "Dare I ask why you want to know?"

"Well you see I've been doing some thinking ...

* * *

Meanwhile, parallel to the intriguing library conversation, another equally interesting conversation was taking place... 

Sirius, although he wouldn't personally have used the word 'sulking' because he saw it as a derogatory term, was slightly annoyed at Remus for what he saw as unnecessary interference in things that didn't concern him. He liked Raisa and therefore resented being told that he couldn't associate with her. Remus probably had sound and logical reasoning behind his words but, then again, Sirius had never really been one for _sound_ and _logical_ arguments, always irrevocably associating them with being _staid_ and _boring_.

So, Sirius had decided to completely disregard Moony's advice and go seek out Raisa anyway -

- Then he had realised he didn't even know where to look for her -

- Then he got hungry and went to go eat dinner where he had a wonderful time glaring at Moony and making him feel very guilty indeed -

- Finally he had had to admit defeat and so had climbed up to the Astrology Tower to not sulk. Sirius always felt calmer up here, being near the night and the stars which had provided him with his name. There was something very comforting about being so close to all the calm and ordered constellations.

"Made up with Remus yet?" A distinctly female voice interrupted his thoughts.

Sirius turned his head languidly, trying not to make it look like he was in the least bit happy to see her because, let's face it, what good would that do his reputation: "What makes you think I'm pissed at him?"

"You were glaring at him all during dinner," Raisa replied evenly.

Sirius bowed his head, feeling a little ashamed now.

"What did he do to piss you off? If you don't mind me asking," Raisa sat down next to Sirius, leaning her back against the pleasantly cool stone wall.

Sirius faltered, feeling for some reason awkward about telling Raisa that she was the subject of their discussion. "Lily and James," he covered smoothly, raising his eyebrows with a flourish as if to say 'who isn't talking about them?'

Raisa knew full well that he was lying but played along regardless as his words fed very neatly into what she had come to talk to him about in the first place. She grinned coylu at Sirius. "What say you and I give them a little shove in the right direction?"

Sirius frowned. "Who?"

"Who do you think - Dumbledore and McGonagall?" she deadpanned.

Sirius snapped back into reality.

"And you want me to help you?" He asked, slightly confused.

Raisa shrugged. "Remus and Alice would never agree and Peter scares me," she offered by way of explanation.

"I feel so special." Sirius replied blithely.

"Well it's not as if I've been doing much good transporting things for James."

"That's true," Sirius agreed with a smile, remembering the now infamous 'Card-gate' episode from earlier in the term.

Raisa frowned playfully and wondered briefly if Sirius was flirting with her, before shrugging that thought aside.

What would Mr. 'I Don't Date' be doing flirting with someone anyway?

"So: in or out?" Raisa asked hesitantly, knowing that he was probably her only hope of getting James and Lily together.

"If it means I get to spend more time with you then I'm in," he smiled at her and from their sitting positions nudged her knee with his.

Raisa blushed and replied with a soft "good".

"One last thing..." Sirius began.

"Remus said you were delicate, and so I had to be careful with you – what did he mean by that?"

Raisa's head snapped up with a start and she jerked away her knee from Sirius', but she recovered her composure quickly:

"What am I - a china plate? You should go talk with Remus," she replied coolly. "...he only meant well."

* * *

"I'm sorry, you want to WHAT?!?" Remus stared at James open mouthed, thinking and hoping he had misheard him but knowing that in a virtually silent library this was something of an impossibility. 

"Madam Pince looked up from her desk at him with an icy glare. In her eyes noise pollution was a most heinous crime.

Jesus, Moony," James exclaimed at his friend's all too high decibel level. It reminded him of a certain red-headed girl he was trying to forget. "I came to you because I thought you'd be the only one who wouldn't yell."

Remus cringed and muttered a hurried "sorry" to both parties and turned back to his companion in need. After getting past the awkward conversation moment where he was forced to judge the attractiveness of his friend who he had never thought of in that way, Remus had come to the conclusion that his companion was in _dire_need.

"I just…I...," James faltered and Remus noted with something close to shock that he seemed quite choked up. "I think that maybe I need to not be in love her anymore…"

He ran a hand distractedly through his messy, dark hair and sat back in his chair, as if to say 'well there you have it.' He didn't look too happy about 'having it' though; in fact James looked as though he was about to throw up.

"What are you saying?" Remus questioned his friend a little more sensitively this time.

"I can't live like this." James shook his head sadly. "The way she looked at me today – like I was the Antichrist."

Remus winced. Lily had been very (and irrationally) angry in Potions. Whilst he could understand her anger at getting her first ever 'Poor' grade in Potions, he knew that James was perfectly capable of reading and so would not have mistaken the colours purple and puce as written in his textbook. James was many things but he most definitely wasn't stupid.

"Prongs..." Remus began, not entirely sure how to phrase his next statement because quite honestly he never thought that it would ever have to pass his lips.

"...Prongs, if you are actually saying what I think you are, then you need to think very carefully about this."

"Well what am I meant to do Moony?" He replied. "Wait around and hope that one day, maybe, she might be able to tolerate me?

"I can't live my life waiting around for a possibility – that's no life at all"

It was at (albeit rare) moments like these that Remus found it hard to associate James with the floppy haired young teen who pranked people for fun and was obsessed with Quidditch. In so many ways he was still like a three year old, but when it came to some things – such as justifying how it was all too possible to fall in love at the age of eleven – James could be stunningly mature.

Remus watched now as his friend stared him head on, face pale but will resolute...

"Moony – I'm giving up on Lily."

* * *

**Dun, dun, dun!!**

**This will be the last chapter for about a week because starting Saturday I won't have computer access for that time :( **

**Review in the meantime though! Feedback will help improve this story as well as assure me that I'm not going nuts and writing into thin air!!**

**Also, do check out 'Getting Over You: Delicate' and tell me what you think. **

**LonelyHeart**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:**Still don't own anything expect Raisa

I'm back!!

**Chapter 5**

Lily Evans gazed at her toast in the hope that it would somehow aid her in discovering the meaning of life, or at least a solution to get rid of the peculiar knot that had settled in her stomach since the previous afternoon when she had nearly hit Potter over the head with a chair in Potions.

While she couldn't quite believe Potter's repeated pleas that 'Snivellus' had tampered with his textbook Lily did realise that she had perhaps acted just a little bit irrationally…

For some strange and inexplicable reason Potter seemed to have a horrible, discerning effect on her and wasn't sure she knew how to function of an equilibrium with him. Lily set great store by equilibrium because it meant that she could be sure no one was trying to wrest from her the control that she valued so highly. Maybe Potter didn't want to take away her control but he sure as hell wanted something from her –

Lily snorted to herself as the comforting thought flitted through her mind that Potter would never get his hands on her 'Something'…

Then she stopped snorting abruptly when she remembered that she was sitting alone at the Gryffindor table and people were beginning to stare.

So anyway, Raisa was sleeping late after her not so secret rendezvous with Black, Alice was off face-eating somewhere with Frank – Lily was feeling unusually resentful of happy couples right now – and Potter was upsetting her equilibrium despite not even being in the same room as her.

Why wasn't he in the room? He never missed the opportunity to stuff his face and – Bugger, Lily glared at her toast now on finding with a discontented sigh that yet again she had Potter on the brain.

Ever since the first day she had come into contact with him James Potter had continually been finding new ways to annoy and torment her, thwarting at every turn her attempts for a Potter-free existence…

* * *

_The night was cold and Lily shivered, pulling her cloak tighter around her small, eleven year old body. The cold was one of those penetrating kinds that reached your very bones and, in all honesty, it wasn't helping her mood._

_Today was meant to be the start of a new chapter in her life but instead it felt as though she was plunging head first into a scary new world very different from anything she had ever known._

_Everyone else on the train seemed to have known each other for years and that feeling pervaded as Lily stood with the rest of the new first years huddled together on the banks of the Great Lake waiting for the boats to carry them across. She wasn't in a wonderful frame of mind anyway, owing to a rather unfortunate confrontation with Petunia on the platform at Kings Cross, and the terrifying thought of being alone and isolated in a school environment as well as a home one didn't fill her with excitement…_

_Lily turned round with a start as she noticed a pair of bright hazel eyes trained on her – _

_The eyes had a warm, reassuring quality that made Lily feel instantly better with only one glance…and the eyes belonged to a not unpleasant mouth. (The mouth happened to be grinning rather goofily at her but Lily wasn't complaining – some friends would at least be better than none.) _

_The warm, smiling boy was walking towards her – accompanied by a rag-tag group of companions – and Lily began to fell that maybe, just maybe, this new chapter in her life might have an decent beginning…_

_This feeling of warmth and anticipation vanished rather rapidly when the green-eyed, goofily grinning eleven year old shoved her into the Great Lake._

_From then on Lily Evans vowed never to forgive James Potter for this introductory act and to hate him for all eternity…_

* * *

"Lily honey, you're massacring the toast," Raisa smiled affectionately at her best friend, who was oscillating between tearing murderous shreds from her toast and muttering under her breath something sounding suspiciously like "Accident, my arse."

Despite Lily's sometimes monstrous temper Raisa was very protective of her friend – ever since that day five years ago when she had pulled Lily Evans' shivering form out of the Great Lake Raisa had become used to looking out for her and was convinced that all James Potter wanted was the opportunity to do the same.

"Great Lake flashback?" Raisa asked sympathetically, noting that Lily had now stopped taking her five year old anger and humiliation out on her toast and was instead staring at the mess she had made.

Lily nodded with a pout., before the image of a smirking Sirius Black popped into her head and she remembered that regardless of her own personal problems she did, in fact, have some duties to perform as a friend and so maybe now would be the right time to have 'The Talk' with Raisa. Hell, it might even get Potter out of her head.

* * *

Raisa, for her part, greeted the broaching of Sirius Black as un unsuitable friend a lot more calmly both than Sirius had done his set-to with Remus the previous day and than Lily had expected...

She surveyed her friend as she stirred her sloppy porridge. "Lily, can you give me one good reason to stay away from Sirius Black…"

"…other than the fact that he's a friend of James'," Rai added quickly, seeing that Lily was about to open her mouth.

"I know what I'm doing Lily," Rai continued. "You just have to trust me - Jesus Christ Lily…" she trailed off, clutching her forehead. "Did you really need to hit me?"

Lily scowled. "Hey Einstein, that wasn't me – I don't hit everybody."

"Just James then," Raisa teased as she looked down at her school shirt now covered in soggy porridge.

Her eyes were then drawn to the tightly scrunched up ball of parchment nestled at the edge of her bowl that had evidently caused the 'Titanic Porridge Rippling' and just had Marauder written all over it.

Lily watched her friend gingerly peel apart the saturated parchment and then jump up for her seat with a start.

"I suppose that's Black calling and you're just going to leave me here all on my own now…Raisa…Raisa…come back." Lily wailed. Then she decided to cease the noise on the grounds of it being undignified and so instead she went back to massacring her remaining slice of toast.

* * *

"That was unsubtle." Raisa commented dryly. She had sprinted her way out of the Great Hall in search of the "EMGERGENCY" that the barely legible parchment scrawl had indicated and she was not amused to find instead Sirius Black standing in the hallway and leaning against a suit of armour, no emergency in sight.

"I couldn't think of any other way to get your attention quietly," he apologised, gesturing towards the rivulets of porridge that where now decorating her school shirt.

"Yeah? Well we really need to review your definition of 'emergency'. Or better still just ask James – I've had this conversation with him many times before," Raisa replied sourly as she rubbed at the stain on her shirt.

Sirius raised a hand to cut off her rant. "As fun as that sounds maybe we should take a rain check for the moment because I think we may have a problem."

* * *

Lily had just finished her toast and was quite put out to find that she had no food left to take her anger and other assorted emotions out on. Breakfast was nearly over and she felt like mutilating a nice piece of sausage or at least another slice of toast before first lesson.

Talking of food Potter still hadn't emerged for breakfast…

For someone so fond of food he was cutting it fine if he wanted to end up with some…

Or maybe he was avoiding her? Maybe she had finally driven him away?

Lily frowned as she realised that the thought brought happiness to her heart but also a faint sense of something resembling dread.

* * *

"And you said FINE?" Raisa snapped, doing a scarily good impression of Lily.

"He's my friend and in the long run it will probably make him less miserable," Sirius defended.

Raisa fixed him with a withering stare. "He's spent five years hopelessly in love with er – do you not think this is a just bit sudden?"

He returned her stare head on, somewhat affronted that anyone had the gall to argue so vehemently with him. But then again she was friends with 'Crazy Girl' Evans – of course she knew how to argue.

"Look," he began. "All I wanted to do was let you know that our little plan is a 'no-go', and incidentally you should bring your notes to Potions this afternoon because I've misplaced mine."

Raisa scoffed. "Oh come on, we can't let a tiny detail like this get in the way."

Sirius gazed at Raisa for a few moments, marvelling at the fact that she seemed to have so much of the Marauder spirit in her and yet for so long she had been invisible to him.

And then he thought of James– sad and miserable, but very much resolute…

Prongs or pretty girl he had known for five years but been attracted to for all of five minutes…

Who to choose?

* * *

Raisa stalked back into the Great Hall fuming at the vileness of boys.

What the hell was Black talking about – 'can't force two people together who are both pulling apart.'

If she wanted to get Lily and James together then she would just have to do it without the help of Sirius Sodding Black.

Raisa sat down at the Gryffindor table with a thump.

"Lover's tiff?" inquired Lily sweetly.

"Oh ha ha ha," Raisa snapped. "Why are you so happy all of a sudden – oh," Rai trailed off abruptly as she noticed Lily's face abruptly turn an ashen white/

"Rai?"

"Yes honey?"

"Why did Potter just walk straight past me without asking me out?"

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:**All I own is Raisa

**I have to thank the wonderful **Wicked7193 **for coming up with the second point on Sirius' ranting list. I do have_'Ways to Get over Lily Evans, Love of my Life No More'_ as a full list of something like ten points so if you are interested in seeing it then drop it in a review and I'll post it as the next chapter if enough people ask.**

Enjoy!

**Chapter 6**

That same morning as Lily awoke to two snoring roommates and a solitary breakfast James awoke to a whole lot of noise. This being made in the main by an irate Sirius brandishing a large piece of parchment, a placatory Remus attempting to tone down the volume of the former, and a very confused Peter wondering what exactly he had missed this time…

"Moony what the hell do you mean 'don't wake James up'? Someone needs to tell him what an idiot he's being."

"…Wake up you stupid sod."

At this James felt someone give his bedcovers an almighty tug. He clung onto them protectively – granted he was being mature about giving up on Lily Evans, but that didn't mean it had to extent to anything else.

Besides, he didn't want to get up -

He wanted to stay in bed and shut the whole world out and indulge in some good old-fashioned wallowing.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Get up off your lazy arse and get out of bed."

James feared another impeding duvet tug and so this time he jerked himself upright and awake before Sirius had the chance to expose his half naked form to the dormitory at large. He now pouted at the angry, grey eyed teen hovering at the foot of his bed:

"Padfoot - that was a horrible wake up call."

Remus stepped forward here to interject. "I told him so too."

"Well I'm sorry, would you have preferred breakfast in bed?" Sirius spat in a tone suggesting that the only breakfast that he would be serving today would be poured all over James' head.

The latter gaped, wondering just what it was he had done to piss Sirius off. He then noticed the crumpled piece of parchment in his tormentor's hands and realised that if he was in the rather girly habit of making lists then the least he could do was hide them better.

Peter was also confused. "Will someone tell me what's going on?" he pleaded.

Then, looking stern, he turned to James: "Prongs, what did you do to make Padfoot mad?"

James pouted. "You always take Sirius' side, Wormtail."

James then remembered that he hadn't actually done anything wrong…for once, so he changed tack:

"What makes you think that I've done something wrong?" he asked Peter conversationally, scooting up to the end of the bed in the manner of a girl at a sleepover greedily waiting for a piece of juicy gossip.

(James now had a hunch which list Sirius had found and wanted to stave off confronting the issue for as long as possible.)

Plus, it was always really entertaining getting Peter started on one of his circular and painfully logical trains of thought.

"Well," Peter placed a podgy finger on his chin in an (unsuccessful) bid to look intelligent. "Whenever Padfoot or Moony get angry it's usually because either you or I have done something stupid. I don't think I've done anything stupid recently, so it must be _you_ who has," he concluded, looking satisfied with his somewhat torturous reasoning.

Sirius, however, listening to the exchange with a hand on his hip and a thunderous expression on his face, looked as though he wanted to throw Peter out a window.

Remus gave him a pointed look suggesting that this might not be wise and Sirius let out an explosive snort of derision.

"I'll tell you what's going on Pete," Sirius said through gritted teeth as he ran through a list of reasons why the Worm-tailed one was useful to have around and why he shouldn't throw Remus out of a window instead.

Instead he lifted up the messy piece of parchment and began to read from it in an affectedly grand and mocking voice:

"…Ways to Get Over Lily Evans, Love of My Life No More…"

Even though he had indeed written the list the previous evening at Remus' behest the words still hit James like a punch in the stomach with a lead boxing glove.

Sirius continued regardless, too livid to notice his friend's discomfort and angrily scanning his way through the rest of the list –

"Stop staring at her; stop acknowledging her; stop calling her Lily; stop moaning about her; study…?"

Peter giggled at this last one.

"Come on James, what are you playing at?" Sirius finally finished, his arms outstretched in question but his rage slightly abating at the though of James actually studying.

James scowled. "It's not very nice to read other people's things."

"I gave it to him, James," Remus admitted sheepishly.

"Moony!" James exclaimed, appalled.

"Sirius wouldn't believe me when I told him what you wanted to do – he thought I was joking."

Remus rubbed his head tiredly, trying to alleviate the inevitable headache that seemed to spring into existence all too frequently these days.

James did not take kindly to this piece of news and jumped out of bed. "Well do you think _I'm _kidding now? Do you? Do you? DO YOU?" Sirius backed away, slightly disturbed at having a half naked Prongs getting in his face.

James cringed and decided to put some trousers on.

* * *

"Me and Peter are going for breakfast," Remus announced loudly and clearly to the silent staring match that was now going on between Sirius and James, in the manner that someone might if they were a tourist in a foreign country and were doggedly trying to communicate in English to the locals. 

Personally Remus was of the opinion that coming to an important decision all by himself was a very big step for James and he for one was prepared to support it. It didn't make Lily a bad person; it meant that she just wasn't compatible with Prongs. Remus ad always vaguely thought they would make a nice couple, but you couldn't force two people together – that wasn't how love worked –

Remus dragged a rapt Peter down the dormitory stairs for breakfast, idly hoping that James and Sirius would be down in time for first lesson.

He dreaded to think how Raisa would take the news though…

* * *

James had never been one for quiet and capitulated, breaking the silence…"What the hell else am I meant to do?" 

The question hung in the air and Sirius' rock-like stare was beginning to weird James out. He knew that this was a favourite trick of Padfoot's – don't say a single word and hope that whoever was on the other end of the conversation would eventually become bored and sing like a canary.

James' boredom threshold had run down a while ago…

"Besides, you don't even like Lil- Li- Eva- Ev-…" James struggled valiantly with various tongue contortions before settling on an emphatic "…_her_…"

"When have I ever said that?" Sirius replied a little too quickly.

James tilted his head at Sirius, as if to say 'get real': "You think she's crazy."

"I think you're crazy but I still like you."

Carried away by a moment of sentimentality rare among boys James stood up and made to envelope Sirius in a hug. The sentimental moment vanished when Sirius side-stepped neatly out the way and James tripped over a Wizard's Chess board that someone had left upturned on the floor.

"Remus doesn't have a problem with this," James sulked from his position on the floor.

"Oh really? Well that makes a change." Sirius fired back.

James frowned. "What's up with you and Remus at the moment anyway?"

Sirius fell silent. This was not something he wanted to go.

"Ah, Rai," James nodded sagely. "Yeah, you _don't_ want to go _there_." He winked conspiratorially at Sirius and made a rather crude gesture with his hands to suggest just what he might have meant by _there_.

Sirius smacked James upside on the head.

"I thought you'd sworn off girls anyway," James rubbed the back of his head, before now dodging to avoid yet another bullet of pain from the demon hands of Padfoot.

"Look Padfoot," James sighed, staring out the window or anywhere other than directly at his friend. "I really need your support on this because I keep changing my mind every five seconds and so I need people around to keep me steady."

Sirius ran a hand through his hair. He now felt mildly guilty at screaming at James and could almost swear that he saw a small tear escaping from James' eye. Raisa would kill him for this, but then again

"Sure mate." Sirius proffered his now not demonic hand to James and helped him up from the floor. "You have my support 100."

James smiled "What do you say? Let's go down and grab some food."

"Food? Sounds great but I just have to go do something first…"

James watched as Sirius sprinted down the dormitory stairs. He took a deep, shaky breath and followed his friend at a more sedate pace.

Today would be a good day – he could just feel it.

The first chapter of the rest of his life…

* * *

_She was quite possibly the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen in his life._

_Of course James was only eleven years old and he patently hadn't seen enough girls on the planet to be able to make a certified judgement on this subject. Regardless of this, he could not take his eyes off the pretty red head – she seemed so small and alone…_

"_Go and talk to her," Sirius nudged his friend in the stomach encouragingly when he had clocked who James was grinning goofily at. "If you don't then I will."_

_For James, this sealed it. He had only known the smirking, charismatic boy with the devastatingly handsome smile for the duration of a train ride, but already he could sense that Sirius Black always got what he wanted. Well, there was no way he was going to get this girl. _

"_Sirius Black don't you move another muscle." James demanded of his new friend, rolling up his sleeves theatrically. "Just sit back and watch how a _smooth_operator does it." _

_In his haste to reach his future wife the extraordinary smooth operator tripped over his own shoelaces and fell right into the red headed Lily Evans, causing her to overbalance screaming into the Great Lake._

_And that was that._

* * *

… _After Remus and another girl had pulled her out of the Lake, he offered Lily copious apologies that she refused to listen to. _

_Then she kneed him in the nether regions…_

_From then on Lily Evans continued to take pleasure in James Potter's pain. _

_James Potter continued to love her more and more every single day whilst searching in vain for a way to make up for one moment of stupid clumsiness so it wouldn't cost him his life's happiness…_

* * *

**Please review after you've read :)**_  
_


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: As always I don't own it**

I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every person who has reviewed 'Getting over You', which has now made it into double figures! Also thank you to all 27(!!) of you guys who have this on an alert or favourite of some kind too.

Anyhow, credit for numbers 3, 4 and 10 on the list goes to **Wicked7193**.

Read, review and enjoy!!

**Chapter 7**

'_**Ways to Get over Lily Evans, Love of my Life No More'**_

**1.** **Call her Evans and not Lily. **

The use of a Christian name implies intimacy and I have taken the decision that I no longer wish to be intimate with Miss Evans – (not that I ever was or that she would ever actually have let me but you get the point).

**2. ****Don't call her anything at all**

She always complains when you acknowledge her so maybe if you don't then she will hit you less. Being hit less would be a positive thing because Madame Pomfrey is becoming tired of your constant presence in her hospital wing and you are tiring of her too. She may have healing hands, but hot she is not. Henceforth, Lily Evans is nothing to you. She is simply 'that girl with the fire engine coloured hair who partners you in Potions'. Damn – Potions. Ask Slughorn for a swap next lesson.

**3.**** Stop staring at her.**

Firstly the aforementioned has, in the past, told you numerous times and at high volume that the staring thing freaks her out. Also, other people have mentioned that it bothers them too. In continuation, staring at females often leads them to mistakenly believe that your gaze is directed at an area south of their faces – this is probably only true 40 of the time. Ask Sirius for an exact figure: it sounds like something he might know.

**4. ****Under no circumstances ask her out.**

Where Lily Evans is concerned, asking her out has been the root of most of your problems. 6,492 rejections, and not counting anymore, suggest that she just isn't interested. You should respect this rather than pester her to change her mind. As of this moment you don't even want her to change it anyway. Besides, asking out a girl you are trying to get over defeats the whole object of the exercise.

**5****. Avoid her wherever possible.**

This shouldn't be much of an issue because she avoids you like the plague. Avoid her like the plague too.

**6.**** Become interested in the lives of other people as oppose to just nodding politely when they start talking about themselves.**

Learn to be a better friend. People like to be listened to. Granted you have the attention span of a gnat, but don't let this stop you. Look people straight in the eye and nod in appropriate places. Who knows, soon you may have a reputation for being a fountain of advice and wisdom and not just 'that prat from Gryffindor who is obsessed with Lily Evans'.

**7. Find a new and interesting hobby**

Take up an extreme sport such as hang-gliding or base jumping. Putting your life in peril might help you realise its true value. If that fails then go for something more sedate like reading. Consult 'Remus-the-walking-library' here – it could be a very nice opportunity to connect with him. Moony is a good friend. He suggested writing this very useful list.

**8. ****Generally be a happier person and don't moan so much**

You tend to spend a large quantity of your time thinking about your own problems. Just for a change, think of other people's. Spending near on entire days talking about is self-centred and although people may be too nice to tell you this it doesn't make it any less true. Moaning is also a Negative Quality. Focus on Positive Aspects of your being ... or first of all try to find some Positive Aspects and then focus on them.

**9.**** Actually study**

Whether you want to or not, this may be quite a good idea. Aurors are generally expected to leave school with good grades and there will come a time when Moony ceases to let you copy his notes. Making your own notes might actually be quite fun ... okay you're not fooling anyone; you would be bored rigid studying. Still, it might take your mind off Evans and give you something else to focus on other than the fact that you can't trail after her like a gormless idiot anymore. Cultivate brain cells rather than stupidity.

**10.**** Get a girlfriend.**

Sure the thought of being attracted to anyone but her makes you want to vomit, but in time this may pass. You are an attractive young man and so should not have a problem in finding a beautiful girl with whom to mate for life. Tip: don't pick one with red hair. Also maybe go for someone more docile this time – girls are not puppy dogs, but they are still for life and not just festive holidays. There are plenty of perfectly nice girls wandering about the castle every day, so chat one of them up and you will be fine...

... Keep telling yourself that you will be fine and maybe you just might be ...

* * *

I know it's not exactly a proper chapter but think of it more like an_interlude_. Read, review, and hopefully Chapter 8 will be up by the end of the week. :) 

**Coming up next chapter, Lily has found a new reason to get mad:**

"**POTTER, GET US OUT OF THIS BROOM CLOSET RIGHT NOW!!"**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:**All I own is Raisa

**Chapter 8**

It was nearly the end of another week and Lily was still fuming.

However, unlike usual she could not vent her anger on James Potter because James Potter had systematically extracted himself from her life, leaving her with an empty feeling in her stomach and Bellatrix bloody Black as a Potions partner.

Now Lily was sitting in Charms, intent on burning a hole into James Potter's head through the power of staring alone.She wasn't used to seeing the back of his head; in all honestly she preferred the front view.

Something that Lily was also not used to was the inability to concentrate in class. Try as she might, Professor Flitwick's were entering the vicinity of her brain and then escaping out again through her ears. (Most of the class shared the same sentiments and there was a drone of background noise that the Professor seemed to be blissfully unaware of).

"Why is he doing this to me?" she wailed at Raisa and Alice

"He's not doing anything to you sweetie – for once," Rai sighed, answering this question for what felt like the millionth time in the past five days.

"Anyway Lily," Alice began, dipping her quill into her inkpot. "How come you're not jumping for joy? This is everything you've ever wanted to happen since the day you met the guy."

Preferring to ignore the perfect truth of the statement Lily retorted sullenly: "Well how would you feel if Frank suddenly decided to end your relationship without even having the courtesy to let you know."

The quill fell abruptly onto the desk and the classroom fell silent at the bloodcurdling shriek that emitted from the mouth of the normally timid Alice:

"FRANCIS REGINALD LONGBOTTOM, IF YOU EVER BREAK UP WITH ME THEN I SWEAR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!!"

The whole class, including a very bemused Frank, looked up from their work and gazed in wonderment at the girls' desk.

"Sorry," Alice cringed as she addressed the class.

"Lily?" Raisa began, carefully disguising the grin now creeping across her face. "You realise that you and James were never in a relationship, right?"

"Yes," Lily replied through gritted teeth and resumed staring at the person she was not in a relationship with.

* * *

After Charms James was also fuming. 

"Why? Why? Why? Why?"

James turned round sharply, causing the source of his annoyance to nearly fall ontop of him.

"Excellent question Raisa – _why_ won't you leave me alone?" he snapped, still experiencing the echoing 'why's' thundering about in his head.

"That's not very nice," Raisa pouted, inwardly surprised that it had taken James this long to snap. If someone spent the entire day trailing after her through corridors she would have chucked them out a window long before now.

Just to emphasis her point she indulged in a few more of the whining, pitiful 'why's', because they were actually rather fun.

"She misses you," Raisa continued in a sing-song voice.

James head shot up and then abruptly shot back down again on realising that this information was not supposed to excite him anymore.

"Ha," Raisa jabbed a finger at him, his odd reaction not escaping her attention. "You still care about her," she finished accusingly.

James' heart was screaming 'of course I do', but recently he had been plagued by the uncomfortable thought that if he was really serious about getting over Evans then he would need to start thinking with his head instead.

Coincidently his head was hurting too. James rummaged around in his pockets for the piece of parchment that was fast becoming his guide for survival in a world of increasing uncertainty.

Raisa frowned. "James, what the hell are you doing?"

Just as Raisa was wondering whether or not to go fetch another Marauder who was not named Sirius to fix James, the presumed broken boy suddenly perked up and turned towards her with a smile verging on manic.

"So, let's talk about _you_."

Rai let out a burst of laughter. "Excuse me?"

"I want to talk about _you_." James insisted, delighted that his sleep-deprived list had come in so useful.

"I don't," she stated plaintively.

"Why do you have an obsessive need to fix everyone else's problems but your own?" "What makes you think I'm compatible with Evans?" "What's going on between you and Padfoot?"

Seeing Raisa run, or at the very least power walk off into the now crowded corridor cheered James up no end. Perhaps Raisa had the right idea, besieging people with constant and probing questions. He resolved to try this trick on Sirius when they next spoke – it would be bound to piss him off.

Whistling to himself James sauntered off back to his dormitory in order to spruce himself up for dinner, where he was determined to find a member of the opposite sex to woo.

Meanwhile Raisa was feeling very disconcerted by James' (perhaps pertinent) bombardment of questions, and accordingly she failed to notice the Sirius Black shaped figure that had appeared in the middle of the hall.

"I'm not talking to you," Raisa replied promptly, staggering back slightly in order to escape the worrying thought that she rather liked the smell of his aftershave.

He shrugged. "I'll talk for the both of us then."

"Are you planning anything for Lily and James?"

Momentarily taken aback by the question, Raisa blindly repeated her opening gambit: "I'm not talking to you."

"I see that you seemed to have regressed back to being a three year old today," Sirius commented, half amused but mostly very annoyed that she was making his vague attempt at an apology so difficult. Hell, most people didn't even get one when he had fouled up, so Raisa Ramsey should be more

"_Definitely_ not talking to you now," Raisa glared.

"Look, I'm trying to apologise here."

She snorted. "Apologise? For that you would actually have to say the words 'I'm sorry'."

He tilted his head at her. Well if he was intending to utter them at some point during the conversation then he certainly had no intention of doing so now.

"Why did Remus tell me to stay clear of you?" he offered into the ensuing silence.

Sirius was staring intensely at her again and it was freaking Raisa out.

"Why did Remus tell _me_ that you don't date?"

He immediately tensed up and made to leave, but not before uttering an ominous parting shot.

"Just be careful, alright?"

Storming round the corner of the corridor, Raisa careered headfirst into the small, acne-ridden figure of Severus Snape. She shrieked and then clapped a hand over her mouth on realising that it was an audible shriek rather than a mental one. To put it crudely, the Slytherin scared the living crap out of her. As such, she generally tended to keep very far away from him. In her eyes bumping into someone did not constitute far away.

Snape completely blanked her and continued on his path through the corridor. It was not often (actually closer to never) that attractive busybodies ploughed into him in corridors.

Stupid clumsy girl was probably out to get him. Severus Snape believed that everyone who walked the face of the earth was out to get him in some way.

Regardless, Snape moved off to the side of the crowd and dug out his quill –

He would note this down and just maybe it might come in useful...

* * *

Lily wandered the staircases aimlessly, taking far less joy than usual in Prefect Patrol. 

Alice's words from Charms were swimming around her head.

She walked along the third floor slowly, taking a cursory look into empty class rooms in the hope of catching people doing naughty and punishable things.

And as for Raisa? Of course she knew that James Potter was not her boyfriend. She was merely referring to the methods he used in frightening off any guy who came within a five mile radius of her.

Potter was very possessive, so why shouldn't she be too?

Lily pouted to the empty corridor. This wasn't fair – why did Potter get to decide when to stop loving her?

Although she was indeed patrolling the corridor: as a poor defenceless girl, alone, and at night, Lily was still somewhat shocked to find herself being unceremoniously shoved into the broom closet that she had just poked her head into in the hope of catching some illicit behaviour she could punish.

The door locked with click and Lily found herself plunged into darkness.

* * *

Raisa was rather pleased with herself. 

For someone who - in the words of every single professor at Hogwarts who had ever taught her – didn't have a single practical bone in her body, she hadn't done a bad job with phase two of her 'Getting Lily and James Together' plan.

She did however feel a small twinge of guilt though for pushing Lily quite so hard into the broom closet.

Any guilt for stupefying James and dragging him into the closet by his very smelly feet was non existent after his behaviour this morning after Charms -

Focus on her own problems? He didn't know what he was talking about.

They would thank her for it in the end. She hoped.

Raisa let out a gasp and rapidly retraced her steps in a kind of moonwalk, as she caught sight of Professor McGonagall stalking down the corridor.

She cursed under her breath.

Today was evidently not a good day for bumping into people.

Raisa could hear the click of footsteps nearing towards her. She inched her way backwards, hoping that if she tried hard enough she could camouflage herself against the wall and so remain unnoticed. Sadly real life didn't work like that. Thick folds of McGonagall's cloak begun to appear, soon to be followed by the woman herself and -

Just then Raisa felt a different someone creep up behind her and pull her backwards. She tried to scream but the cold pressure of a hand clamped over her mouth made it impossible. She very soon gave up the will to struggle against her very firm captor, instead giving herself over to the moist sensation of a pair of lips very near her left ear and a firm voice murmuring:

"Don't say a word."

* * *

Slightly woozy, Lily sat up and carried out a reconnoitre of her surroundings - 

This was a fairly rapid process given that she was lying sprawled in a broom closet:

Four walls, one mop and one James Potter pretty much covered the basics, so – wait a minute.

Lily went through the list again

Maybe she was hallucinating

The dishevelled but unmistakeable face of James Potter

Lily slapped herself hard.

James Potter was still very much there and very much real, wincing in sympathy at her self-directed violence.

Momentarily putting to one side the fact that she was stuck in a locked broom closet with no way of escape, Lily inwardly punched the air -

She had wanted an excuse to get really mad and this had both literally and metaphorically handed her one on a plate.

She flexed her vocal chords excitedly.

Oh this would do just fine.

She cleared her throat and adopted her best screaming voice – the one that struck fear into the hearts of all who heard it...

"POTTER, GET US OUT OF THE BROOM CLOSET RIGHT NOW!!"

* * *

Please review!! 

_**Coming up next chapter...**_

_**Clumsily she leaned forward, only thinking how inviting his lips looked and how much kissing him right now would feel like coming home after a very long journey...**_


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** Don't own anything apart from Raisa

**Chapter 9**

"You bastard," Rai hissed, arms folded tightly in order to keep from lashing out at the idiot in front of her. God knows he deserved it, but she was going to be mature – at least that would make one of them.

Her captor frowned, looking very much put out. "That's a needlessly harsh assessment."

"You came up behind me, gagged me with your boy hands, whispered menacing words in my ear and then dragged me across half the school." Raisa stated plainly, fixing Sirius Black with a suitably withering stare.

Maybe she was just being pedantic, but in her eyes this was perfectly reasonable grounds for anger.

However Sirius merely shrugged nonchalantly and leaned against a Common Room armchair, whilst giving her a look that suggested she was overreacting considerably.

"I bet McGonagall would have been _really_ interested to hear what you were up to," he mused, as though he were thinking about a very complex and difficult mathematical puzzle.

Raisa paled; quite understandably not wanting to have to explain to her Head of House why she was wandering around corridors at night (it had been bad enough having to explain to Sirius, putting up with his systematic bursts of laughter, akin to a machine gun). Shockingly she had the vague suspicion that McGonagall would find it somewhat less comical that she had decided to go round pushing students into broom closets.

Accordingly Raisa changed tack, hoping to distract Sirius from any desire to have a long chat with the Transfigurations Professor in the near future: "An invisibility cloak! What the hell were you thinking swanning around the school with a bloody invisibility cloak?"

Sirius snorted. "I was thinking that you were intending to do something stupid..." He paused, taking in Raisa's indignant expression. "...and it turns out I was right."

"Lily will kill you when she finds out." Raisa replied smoothly, resorting to the somewhat childish threat of tattling to the teacher (or in this case Prefect).

"Lily won't find out," Sirius calmly prompted. "The cloak belongs to James, and given your deranged wish to see them end up together I think this is one piece of information you don't want to be telling Evans."

Raisa scoffed, both because she couldn't think of an intelligent or witty comeback and because Sirius did, in fact, have a point.

"So, how do you think Lily will take the fact that her best friend locked her into a cupboard with her worst enemy?" Sirius began conversationally, swinging his legs round to sit on the arm of the chair in the manner of a girl gossiping in the toilets.

Raisa glowered and Sirius took this as invitation to continue because goading her was turning out to be almost as entertaining as goading Prongs.

"For that matter, how is James going to feel when he finds out that he was stupefied by a girl? Sirius paused and then, unable to resist, added as an aside: "...Nice move, by the way."

Rai beamed, before toning this down slightly when she remembered she was meant to be pissed off at Black. She focused on perceiving his comment as meaning that the female of the species was incapable of casting decent spells.

Try as she might though, Raisa found that she could not remain mad at Sirius Black any longer. James had once commented the same thing to her – it was almost like he exuded an aura that left his body and turned to stone around him. Even the Energizer Bunny would eventually get tired of continually coming up against a cold stone wall in a disagreement.

She tried to look grudging and as if she was the one still in control of the conversation. "Okay Black - you've made your point. No one finds out about the invisibility cloak."

He gave her a grateful smile, evidently glad he didn't have to resort to some kind of complicated memory charm to erase her recollections of the night. (This would have been markedly inconvenient too as Rai was the only one who knew which closet Lily and James were in).

Raisa smiled back, struck by the fact that for practically the first time in all the years she had known him he seemed to be emitting a genuine emotion. Of course she didn't mean Sirius was like one of those completely impossible plastic people, just that

In a gesture of compassion Raisa proffered a hand for him to shake. Sirius took it quickly in case she decided to retract her offer of friendship, holding on too for slightly longer that strictly necessary.

"Bed?" he questioned, gesturing with an incline of the head towards the glimpses of jet black sky visible through the window.

Raisa's eyes goggled out of her head.

"Separate beds," he confirmed with a throaty chuckle, cannily side stepping to avoid Raisa's outstretched knee doubtlessly aiming for his little Sirius and observing with interest her subsequent sheepish expression.

Before turning in for the evening Sirius turned to face her again, a fairly pertinent thought having just occurred to him: "How long are you going to leave them in there for?"

Raisa grinned. This was the really sneaky part of her plan…

* * *

"For the last time, how could I have possibly pushed you into the closet when I was already in here myself?" James sighed as for what seemed like the millionth time in the past half hour, he attempted to explain to a scowling Lily Evans the blindingly obvious. 

"Oh come on Evans, I'm not the root of all evil." James continued as he rubbed his head tiredly, reflecting that somewhere out there someone was punishing him for something.

Lily gave him a look that suggested the above statement as being anything but the case. Frankly, the whole situation was new territory for her, so she was clinging on to her anger for dear life – this being comforting and familiar. However, somewhat unusually Potter was refusing to take her bait. It was no fun trying to be irate when the hapless victim of your rage was gazing blankly at the wall.

"I know – Black did it!" she proclaimed triumphantly. "This is exactly the type of warped, crazy stunt that only someone like Black could come up with."

Yes! Lily nodded to herself, happy with her new conclusion. Maybe James Potter was not the root of all evil, but Sirius Black sure as hell was. She stood up with a flourish to emphasise her frankly ironic theory and promptly tripped over James' outstretched leg, falling into his lap.

Lily blushed the colour of her hair and tried to rearrange her features into something remotely dignified, as if she had meant to swoon gracefully into his lap in the manner of a romantic heroine. She hadn't, of course – she was just really clumsy. Also, for the scenario to be viable the hero would have to not be squirming uncomfortably.

The Romantic Heroine pouted. Was she really that hideous? If Potter's wheedling for the past five years was to be believed, Lily Evans falling into his lap was an event to thank the deity of his choice for. (On this subject she wasn't sure of the specifics, but she had always thought that the Chaos would be rather appropriate for a Marauder to worship.)

Lily stood up and brushed herself off, trying to move as far away from James Potter as humanly possible. This was difficult considering that they were stuck in three by four foot broom closet.

"Sorry."

"S'okay."

* * *

Sirius had to admit that he'd vastly underestimated Raisa Ramsey – when she schemed she definitely didn't do it by half measures. Using Lily and James' own stubborn natures against them was so sneaky; it was so ..._Marauder-like_. 

The vague, unfinished thought crossed his mind that she wouldn't be the worst girlfriend material in the world. But no... Sirius shook his head hurriedly.

She grinned widely at him and held out an arm for him to take, soft bars of morning light framing their path through the corridor: "Shall we?"

* * *

Sleeping the night in a broom closet wasn't actually that bad if you ruled out completely the possibility of actually sleeping. James smiled to himself wryly, well aware that at the beginning of term he would have done just about anything to be in this situation. Now though, now he wanted to be anywhere else but in close proximity to Lily Evans. 

Although luckily she seemed to have calmed down somewhat, having fluctuated from extreme anger to extreme unhappiness -

"I know you think I'm some kind of crazy, stubborn control freak," she murmured, looking so sad that James was compelled to contradict her.

"Hey, no one thinks that about you," he replied, even though he could sense that her words were meant more for her own consumption than his.

"James leaned forward animatedly, forgetting that he was not meant to be talking about one of his pet subjects anymore. "You're determined and organized," he affirmed.

Lily realised with a start that right at that moment she was receiving more eye contact from James than she had in a while and she'd missed it.

"Besides, people who just see the stubborn side of you aren't bothering to look beyond the surface," he continued, somewhat forgetting now that he was talking to the real Lily Evans and not merely a sunspot of figment of his imagination. "They don't see you at your most vulnerable, they don't see you in fits of uncontrollable laughter and they definitely don't see your true beauty – inside and out." James finished, letting out a slow, shaky breath at the torrent of emotion that he had managed to let slip.

All of a sudden Lily felt the urge to fall into James' lap all over again and spend the rest of her life gazing up into the smiling face and sparkling eyes of a guy who she knew would love her and protect her for the rest of her life. Before she even knew what was happening her heart seemed to short-circuit her brain and she was moving and acting of someone else's volition...

This couldn't really be her, could it? She couldn't truly have spent all this time fighting against something that was always meant to happen, could she?

Clumsily she leaned forward, only thinking how inviting his lips looked and how much kissing him right now would feel like coming home after a very long journey…

…With the awful light that the cupboard was emitting and the haziness caused by her rush of new feelings, Lily didn't notice that the object of her desire was inching further and further away from her, towards a door which was moving suspiciously too much for something that was meant to be locked.

The pair fell out of the closet with a crash, Lily landing on top of James and James landing at the feet of a mildly amused Dumbledore.

* * *

A murmur rose from the gathering crowd... 

It seemed as though the student population of Hogwarts had turned out in their masses to witness Lily and James' 'rescue' from the broom closet-cum-prison.

Teenagers are funny creatures and, a little like a game of Chinese Whispers 'Lily Evans and James Potter tumble out of a the broom closet' very quickly morphed into 'Evans and Potter found making mad passionate love in cupboard'. Rumour is also a funny creature too...as the pair will be soon to find out...

They jumped to their feet hurriedly, Lily looking suitably cowed by the presence of their esteemed headmaster and James simply nodding in greeting to a man he spent rather too often in the company of.

"Lily, thank God." A much frazzled looking Raisa pushed her way past the rubber-neckers and hugged her friend tightly. "We were so worried about you."

"Yeah, we were worried." Sirius added in conformation.

Lily would perhaps have been less touched at Raisa's spontaneous display of affection had she seen the inconspicuous wink that passed between the pair.

"Professor, we're really sorry," Lily blurted out despite having done nothing wrong. It was an odd character quirk of hers that she refused to apologise to anyone her own age yet would beg the forgiveness of any figure of authority at random. "Someone locked us in the closet."

"The door was unlocked," Dumbledore offered kindly before drifting into the background to watch with interest how this scene would play out...

Lily paled, and then turned to James with murderous intent in her eyes. "YOU DIDN'T CHECK TO SEE IF WE WERE LOCKED IN?!"

"Well I was slightly more preoccupied with checking first that I was in one piece after being STUPIFIED," James retorted.

The crowd cheered as it became apparent that this scene would play out at high volume...

However before Lily could get her teeth into another really juicy Potter Rant, a voice from the crowd cut her off -

"James!!" A pretty, blond figure ran from the crowd and near threw herself around his neck, in the manner of a human necklace.

It was clearly intended to be a sweeping, romantic gesture, somewhat diminished though by the fact that James nearly fell to the floor, unused as he was to having a woman pendant around his spindly neck.

He gently set down the excited girl and twirled her round to face an ashen Lily. James cleared his throat, and announced defiantly to the startled red head in front of him:

"Evans, meet Ivy"

* * *

Don't hate me too much for this chapter...!! 

Please read, review and tell me what you think :)


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:**All I own is Raisa, everything else is just being used for the sake of entertainment.

**Chapter 10**

James was once again miserable at breakfast for a variety of reasons:

1. Lily Evans was intent on destroying his life

2. He felt like throwing up every time he thought about his 'girlfriend'

3. Lily Evans was intent on destroying his life

4. Sirius was being an idiot

"I don't believe you," the idiotic one continued, repeating the same phrase he had been intermittently interspersing between bites of food for the past half hour.

James flicked the back of his spoon against Sirius' head.

"I'm telling you Sirius, she kissed me - on purpose too," James protested.

Sirius glared, a spoon-shaped imprint now appearing on his forehead. "Because wouldn't you just hate to be kissed by accident?"

Remus interjected here, posing Sirius' sentiments a little more delicately. "Are you sure James?"

"Of course I'm bloody sure. I think I know when a girl wants to kiss me," James snapped back incredulously, wishing now that he'd managed to control his mouth and keep the events of the previous night to himself.

"She's trying to ruin me," he continued plaintively and to a background of ensuing laughter. "The moment I decide to get over her she throws herself at me – that's a bit suspicious don't you think?"

Here Remus and Sirius shared a wryly, amused smile at James' frequent tendency to be a raging drama queen.

"James Potter: God's gift to women," Sirius commented blithely.

"I believe you Prongs," Peter replied loyally. James felt slightly comforted, before remembering that Peter had and would continue to take anything that fell from his lips as gospel truth.

"For the last time, Lily Evans tried to kiss me and as I backed away we fell through the door of the closet." James proclaimed, by now very fed up at his friends' seeming inability to process simple information.

"Hold on a minute," Remus frowned. "You backed away?"

"Yes." James replied warily, beginning to wish he had stayed in bed that morning.

"I bet that made her feel great," Sirius chipped in sarcastically,

He was also aware that James' turmoil was not bothering him as much as it should. Did it make him a bad friend that he wanted an excuse to spend more time with Raisa?

"I thought it was a remarkably mature of me," James pouted, feeling very underappreciated.

"So, any idea who pushed you in last night?" Sirius inquired casually.

James' features darkened, but before he had the chance to go into any great detail on the subject of his feelings towards big scary guys who went around stupefying people at will, out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of something that filled his heart with dread...

He paled as a mop of dirty blonde hair bobbed its way towards the Gryffindor table.

"Hide me," he begged to his fellow Marauders.

He was rather beginning to regret finding Ivy.

The problem was that James seemed to have vastly overestimated his appeal with the opposite sex. Rather naively he had assumed that on finding out he was no longer pining for Lily, girls would be flocking to sample the unique delights of the James Potter experience. This had not proved to be the case. As such, James and his big mouth had now found themselves lumbered with the frighteningly clingy Ivy...he giggled silently at his unintentional pun.

"Are you hiding from me James?"

James looked up from under the table at his girlfriend of less than a day and promptly bashed his head.

"Of course not," he replied falsely, laughing nervously and trying to hold back from swearing loudly at the bruise now forming on his head.

"If you're not doing anything tomorrow baby, I have a proposition for you," Ivy winked at him in a way that was evidently intended as flirty and cheeky but instead came across as though she had a squint.

James' eyes widened. "That's definitely a thought, but the guys and I already have plans." He placed an expression of deep sorrow and regret across his features in order to compliment his completely false words.

"Isn't that right guys?" He turned to face his friends desperately.

"What plans?" Sirius smiled sweetly at James and gestured quietly to the mark on his forehead.

"You go and have fun with your girlfriend," Remus insisted too, propping up one of his many textbooks in front of Peter, who was just about to voice something to the contrary.

"Okay, cool," squealed Ivy excitedly, not noticing the look of impending Armageddon on James face and the murderous glares he was directing towards his friends.

* * *

The Library reverberated silently as Raisa and Alice gaped at Lily: Alice in genuine wonderment and Raisa in barely disguised fits of glee. 

"So you kissed him?" Alice murmured, disbelieving.

Lily frowned. Evidently Alice had not been listening to her story and Lily resolved to correct her friend: "I didn't kiss him."

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't." As if to prove her point, Lily flicked her quill towards her Alice and Raisa, showering them with a flurry of ink.

"Well what _were_ you doing then?" Alice continued, drying her and Raisa off with a quick flick of her wand.

Raisa mouthed a 'thank you' to Alice and grinned silently. Denial was not just a river in Egypt and scheming was definitely proving a lot easier than she had ever imagined.

Of course the blond limpet would have to be got rid of, but she and Sirius could sort that out - maybe they could lock her in a broom closet too.

...She and Sirius...Rai liked how the words felt around her tongue.

Lily faltered at Alice's rather pertinent question. "I...I was...I was contemplating the extreme ugliness of his face." She shouted this last part, intending for it to carry over to the table where James was sitting and attempting to study.

It must have been a very special magnetized table, because try as she might Lily couldn't take her eyes off it -

Potter was looking remarkably dishevelled...

Why was he so dishevelled? It couldn't be through studying because if that was the case Remus would look as though he was in the middle of a permanent hurricane.

Who had he been getting dishevelled with? Not that dippy girl who had flung herself at him yesterday, she hoped. He could do so much better than that.

"Any idea who pushed you in there or are you going to continue staring at James all day?" Raisa inquired casually.

"No, but I can assure you that when I do find out they will wish they had never messed with Lily Evans," she replied, pointedly choosing to ignore the second part to Raisa's question.

She titled her head towards James' table and yelled with bloodcurdling intensity: "NO ONE MESSES WITH LILY EVANS!"

James' head snapped up from his work that he was pretending to do in a quiet corner of the library. She was hunting him down and trying to send him slowly round the bend...and it was working perfectly.

"You know, I can hear every word you're saying," he stated, sticking his head round the corner of a bookcase.

"Oh really?" Lily snapped. "So your ears aren't made of cloth after all," she exclaimed.

James scoffed and fingered his ears subconsciously. "Well at least they aren't made of stone."

Bewildered and more than a little perturbed at having a high volume dispute about ears going on in her library Madam Pince unsurprisingly chose this moment to kick James out of her sanctuary. Lily she was prepared to give the benefit of the doubt because she had a grudging respect for the red head, whereas Potter was just plain annoying.

So, like a newly convicted prisoner screaming defiantly from in the arms of a burly court marshal, James left the library kicking and screaming - "I'm going to go make a date with my girlfriend."

"Fine," Lily shot back, not really meaning it at all but having dug herself too far into a hole to retreat.

As James stalked out of the library she sat down in her chair with a thud, the sound of her derrière hitting the seat echoing the frantic beating of her poor, broken heart.

Truth be told she was terrified that through her own stubborn nature she had managed to lose the one person who had ever really taken the time to care about her.

However, this fear soon gave way to a white hot and incandescent rage that James Potter thought he had the right to talk back to her like that. Lily resolved to take her revenge at the earliest opportunity.

* * *

The next morning Lily and Raisa came down into the Common Room just in time to witness an interesting, if a little one-sided argument taking place in the corner. 

"No."

"But Padfoot." Lily snickered here at Potter's incessant whining.

"No."

"Please..."

"No"

"But..."

"What am I - your own personal man-whore?"

James decided to set aside his dignity now, falling to his knees. "You can't leave me alone with her."

Sirius backed away, trying to dislodge his friend from his knees – friends and knees were two things not meant to go together. "Why don't you just dump her then."

At this juncture the voices noticed they had company.

James' head shot up. "Dump her?" he frowned theatrically from his position on the floor and backtracked like crazy. "Why would I dump my beautiful girlfriend who I love very much and may possibly marry?"

Lily stiffened. Sirius sniggered.

"So, are you guys doing interesting today?" Raisa asked conversationally, in an attempt to diffuse the thick tension hanging suspended in the room.

"Me and Padfoot have a date in Hogsmeade," James affirmed, rather too unnaturally happy given what his words implied.

It was Raisa's turn to stiffen.

"...with separate people," Sirius added hurriedly. He then replayed in his head how that must have sounded out loud and was not impressed with the result.

But before he had the chance to properly rectify his words to "James begged me to accompany a friend of his girlfriend but I'm really falling hopelessly in like with you" Raisa fixed him with a glare and a sharp reply: "I have no problem with that."

Sirius couldn't help but feel slightly perturbed to hear her so blatantly lie to his face. He could see in her eyes that his words had cut her pretty deeply. Usually this was one of his favourite qualities about Raisa – the way that her eyes were so incredibly open.

"Have fun," Raisa continued.

He drew back as if he had been burnt: "Come on Prongs, let's go."

James frowned for a second, as if still transfixed by the practically visible tension between his two friends.

He wasn't at all transfixed by Evans' lips though. He could give or take her soft, red lips.

He happily let Sirius drag him out of the Common Room and didn't kick up any fuss at all...

* * *

Raisa kicked the couch angrily: Mr 'I Don't Date'? More like Mr 'I Don't Date You' 

How dare he? Lily let out a frustrated squeal. What made Potter think he had the right to just drop her like she was nothing?

The germ of a brilliant idea taking root in her head, she turned to Raisa with a sly grin:

"Fancy a trip to Hogsmeade?"

* * *

Please read and review afterwards – for some strange reason this chapter was really difficult to write so I want to know what you guys think :) 


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:**All I own is Raisa, everything else is just being used for the sake of entertainment.

**Chapter 11**

"Albus, please forgive the crude expression but you cannot be serious." 

Professor Dumbledore looked out onto the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with a contented smile, before slowly inclining his head over to the highly unamused face of Minerva McGonagall. "On the contrary Minerva – I am perfectly serious."

McGonagall smoothed her hair down and contemplated what it must be like to be a Calm Person. Five years with the Marauders in her House had managed to systematically erase any sense of calmness or piece of mind that she had ever had 

"Potter and Evans as next year's Head Boy and Girl is madness, as you well know," she pleaded. "They would kill each other within the first week on duty," McGonagall added, thinking privately that this was probably a generous assessment.

"Sometimes madness makes perfect sense..." Dumbledore mused, turning back towards the window, deep in thought. 

He also wondered vaguely when the Hogwarts topiary had started to move of its own accord...

* * *

Raisa was somewhat worried about Lily's mental state.

In the time that had passed between James' somewhat insensitive revelations on the state of his love life, her best friend was rapidly descending into a kind of crazed frenzy that really didn't suit her. Well, either that or she just got a kick out of forcing someone she claimed to care about to crawl through bushes. For the sake of their friendship Raisa fervently hoped it was the latter, but either way she was not amused. 

"Lily..." she began, wincing as yet another abnormally sharp twig dug into her thigh.

The red head snapped round to face Raisa, eyes blazing and leaves stuck to her tresses: 

"I'm fine."

"That's great honey, but -,"

"I'm fine," batted back the high pitched reply through gritted teeth. 

At about this point Raisa realised this was a prime example of karma biting back. It seemed that the universe did not look too kindly on bundling people into confined spaces. She briefly contemplated the logistics of stupefying Lily and dragging her back to the castle, but shook the though out of her head on remembering that her friend could easily take her in fight. 

Raisa was also beginning to conclude that she was becoming far too eager to stun, stupefy or petrify at any opportunity – a trait which was worryingly Marauder-y for her liking. 

Although when she was made privy to the next stage of Lily's plan Raisa found that stupefying her friend was an attractive option... The detour to Slughorn's store cupboard also made a lot more sense...

* * *

"This is a pity date, isn't it?"

Madam Puddifoot's tea shop didn't sell alcohol, and in Sirius' opinion this was a massive oversight.

Beatrice tossed her auburn hair away from her face as she finished speaking and Sirius wondered when exactly he had become such an idiot - 

Obviously it was in no way healthy to practise self loathing, yet he could think of no other reason why he found himself stuck in a tea shop that qualified as one of the seven circles of hell with a very angry young woman who seemed to spew barbed shards of ice every time she opened her mouth. 

Sirius was gradually becoming convinced that the entire female population of Hogwarts (and the majority of the world at large) was either: deranged, permanently premenstrual, or both and Beatrice was doing absolutely nothing to disprove this theory. 

"Oh come on, don't expect me to believe that you _want_ to be here," Beatrice continued staring a hole through Sirius' head with an expression of barely disguised contempt decorating her sharp, porcelain features.

Maybe idiot was giving himself too much credit...

Now stubborn was accurate. Stubborn was why he was sitting here on his first date in over three and a half years with the wrong girl. As the saying went, 'like attracts like' and it was just Sirius' luck to have found himself terminally attracted to only girl on the planet who was more stubborn than him. 

Raisa's face – cold, hard, and adamant she didn't care – came screaming back to the front of his mind and Sirius found his fight.

"Well maybe this wouldn't be so painful for the both of us if you could just keep your mouth shut," he snapped curtly, in an attempt to cut off at the source another tirade of abuse that he could see Beatrice was about to emit - 

Sirius then remembered the cardinal rule that came attached to all deranged, angry and premenstrual women the world over - the one that James used to permanently forget in all his encounters with Lily Evans.

He winced as the contents of his boiling hot cup of tea hit him in the face and Beatrice went storming off to the toilets. 

Yep, never criticise an angry woman.

* * *

James tapped his foot nervously against a gilded table leg and tried to ignore the aura of hate emanating from Sirius.

"Nice tea isn't it?" he remarked conversationally to his girlfriend. 

To be perfectly honest James probably wouldn't have noticed if his cup was filled with liquid mud, so preoccupied was his mind on a certain red head. 

It was though she had followed him to Hogsmeade. James knew - given Lily's dislike of being in even a five mile radius of him - that this was impossible, but still he could not shake off the feeling that his red headed tormentor was somewhere close by.

"You're not having fun," Ivy stated glumly. 

"What makes you say that, my sweet?" James gulped, biting back his immediate internal response of "is it that obvious?" 

"James, you've asked me five times in the past half hour whether or not I like the tea," Ivy replied.

James cringed. "Well do you?" 

Unlike Sirius however, he was well used to angry women throwing things at him, and so sensibly he ducked Ivy's choice of missile, breathing a sigh of relief as she joined her friend in the toilets.

* * *

The toilets were talking. Ivy didn't much care for talking toilets

"_Oh. My. God,"_

"_Stop hyperventilating – I've already apologised. How am I supposed to tell whether a hair is male or female?"_

"_Really easily"_

"_By rights I should be the angry one when you drag me through lots of bushes and then force me at wand point to drink a really foul potion in order to turn into some random person that I don't even know."_

"_I LOOK LIKE A TART,"_

"_So would you rather have looked like James Potter then?"_

"_Oh shut up – you're just happy because looking like that you probably do have a chance with Sirius now...owww!" _

The cubicle door slammed open and before Ivy had the chance to wonder where Beatrice had got to she saw a cascade of sparks and, like her friend minutes before, left the world of conscious people for the time being.

* * *

Hey guys, sorry for the longer wait with this chapter. I am kind of snowed under with a lot of things right now but am doing my best to keep 'Getting Over You' progressing because at the moment it's probably my only source of fun :( 

But...do not despair, lots and lots of lovely reviews may compel me to put the second part of this chapter up tomorrow...! 

And just out of interest, has anyone clocked onto Lily's crazy plan yet?


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: **All I own is Raisa, everything else is just being used for the sake of entertainment.

Okay guys, I'm back!!

I think I said this to a couple of you but I will reiterate it again - I'm sorry that the second update never materialised last week. I'm not going to become one of those people who promises updates that never come on time, this week as just been kind of busy and odd for me. Basically I'm doing my best. So, here is the next chapter and please don't hate me too much!!

**R.N.L Tonks**: I loved your pm!! I'm in a bit of a weird place at the mo and so it was great to hear I can still make people laugh. Thank you for your suggestions too – I take it as a huge compliment

**Chapter 12**

James was contemplating the fact that Ivy might be schizophrenic...

There didn't really seem to be any other way to describe the miraculous transformation that had occurred to bring her from the girl who had tried to mortally wound him with a spoon to the nervous and somewhat shifty young woman fidgeting in front of him.

Not that he wasn't delighted cutlery was no longer being hurled in his direction, but James was not at all sure he liked this new Ivy...

It made him uneasy. As a master purveyor of pranks he was instinctively in tune to odd behaviour (due mainly to the fact that he was the one behaving oddly in order to cover up his latest indiscretion) and he did not like it in the slightest when the boot was on the other foot.

She fidgeted in her seat for what seemed the millionth time

James gulped. "So, nice tea isn't it?"

* * *

Meanwhile 'Ivy' had a rather more simple explanation for her remarkable change in behaviour. She had spend the last five years of her life attempting to avoid going on a date with James Potter and she wasn't taking it very well that all her hard work seemed to have been in vain.

"_How could you do this to me?" Lily shrieked, frantically patting down her now dirty blond hair and ruing the day that Raisa Ramsey ever pulled her out of the Great Lake._

_Raisa, for her part, was taking her transformation with remarkable stoicism – karma was biting back and she was not going to fight it. "Oh come on Lily, how was Polyjuice Potion ever going to be a good idea?" _

_Lily scoffed. "Well I didn't see you objecting to it when I asked you to collect the hairs for me?"_

_Calmly inspecting her new and rather fuller figure in the toilet mirror Raisa weighed her friend's accusation up in her head and found it accurate._

* * *

"What the hell is this?"

'Beatrice' pulled a face and spat the yellow liquid back into her cup that she had been chugging from frantically just moments before. She had been certain that the evil potion in the toilets had been the worst thing she'd ever tasted but apparently she was mistaken.

"That would be the green tea that you made me order for you," Sirius surveyed her with a wary frown, wondering privately what exactly she had been doing in the toilets to cause her to emerge so incredibly dishevelled

"And you let me?" 'Beatrice' scoffed, eyes scanning the table for something that tasted of anything to drink until she happened upon Sirius' steaming hot cup of coffee.

"I'm really sorry honey – this is kind of bad form for a date, but I need to borrow your coffee."

Sirius blinked.

* * *

cringes. I know this is very short and not brilliant, but writer's block is proving a nightmare at the mo. I know where I want to go with this but not how I'm getting there. :(

* * *


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** All I own is Raisa

**Chapter 13**

Being outside of your own body was one hell of an odd sensation, Lily mused as she contemplated the goofily grinning idiot in front of her.

Outside of her body she was able to look at James Potter and see someone who might just qualify as adorable, cute even. Now that she was no longer Lily Evans she felt freer somehow; as if it was okay for her not to hate Potter.

...James...

She looked over at Raisa who, in her first thirty seconds of being Beatrice, had managed to steal Sirius' entire cup of coffee. Lily tutted under her breath – Rai was such a drama queen.

Admittedly it might have been nice gesture for Lily to have told her friend what she was about to drink and not just sit back and watch her half-choke on a mysterious liquid.

"So, nice tea isn't it?" James asked conversationally, before slapping a hand over his mouth as he realised that he had once again stuffed his foot in his all too big mouth –

Yes, James may not have been an expert when it came to dates, but he had the feeling that women may not appreciate going out with a man who

Lily snorted ungracefully: "Is that all we've been talking about for the past half hour?"

Suddenly her heart felt a lot lighter knowing that all James had been doing was making small talk badly and that there had been no bodily contact between the two.

Lily grinned to herself. Well, now that she had an extended amount of time to endure in the body of a total stranger then the least she could do was use it well...

"So Potter," she smiled brightly and leaned towards him, lacing her fingers under her chin in what she imagined was an enticing gesture:

"What makes you think that you are even remotely good enough to be going out with me?"

* * *

Sirius blinked.

"Raisa?" he asked tentatively, hoping against hope that this time his usually impeccable judgement was wrong. He couldn't shake off the feeling that the Beatrice now sitting quite contentedly in front of him was not the same ice queen who had stormed off to the loos earlier.

Was he mad to automatically think of Raisa?

'Beatrice' spat Sirius' coffee back into its cup and began to splutter.

Damn, damn, damn. How was it possible for him to be so perceptive? He was a _boy_, for Christ's sake. _Boys_ weren't meant to notice anything, let alone when people swopped bodies. Okay...think, think, think.

She stood firm, attempting to fix him with what she considered to be a suitably withering and Beatrice-like glare.

She had to put him off the scent somehow...

"Sirius Black, how dare you bring up another woman on our date," she blustered, sending frantic glances across the table to 'Ivy', who seemed at that moment to be blissfully unaware of anyone else in the room apart from James Potter. She smiled to herself, momentarily forgetting her predicament – at least one good thing was coming out of this mess.

"Don't make me think I'm crazy because I'm not." Sirius stared at her, his stormy grey eyes attempting to penetrate her resolve. He tilted his head, as if seeing her face at a different angle would help him to find the truth.

"I don't know how you did it..." he continued, staring her down. "...and if it involved some kind of potion I would guess you had help."

"Pig," muttered Raisa.

At this outburst a look of understanding passed between the pair and Sirius knew once and for all that Raisa Ramsey was sitting across the table from him. Strangely enough the thought did not repel him, although it did confuse him

Sirius opened and closed his mouth several times, very carefully weighing up how to phrase his next words. He knew they needed to be said but wasn't sure how to phrase them without sounding like a complete sap. Okay, here we go:

"You know, James forced me into this."

Still silence from Raisa across the table...

Sirius frowned. If he didn't know any better he would swear that he saw a faint flicker off guilt pass across her unfamiliar features.

...Guilt that she had misjudged him or annoyance that she had had to go to such extreme lengths to find the truth?

"This might sound like an odd question, but I'm going to ask it anyway..." Sirius began, talking a slow breath, still trying to reconcile himself to the idea that his Gryffindor classmate was now incarnated in the nightmare that was Beatrice.

"What the hell made you think that this was even a remotely good idea?"

"Lily," Raisa replied mutinously.

Sirius snorted, then stopped suddenly, mid-sip as a slightly worrying though occurred to him. "If you're here then does that mean..." he trailed off, pointing to 'Ivy', unable to voice the horrible thought brewing inside of him.

Raisa nodded sheepishly, still getting used to the way that Beatrice's ebony locks fell around her face when she moved her head. She sighed and wondered how on earth she was going to extricate herself from this particular mess – she had a horrible feeling that it wouldn't be pretty.

"You know if she wanted a date with James that badly all she had to do was ask," Sirius grinned, gesturing lightly with his head over to Lily giggling coquettishly in Ivy's body.

"Shut up," Raisa pouted, more than a little put out now that Lily and James were growing closer under a design that wasn't her own doing.

Sirius moved towards her conspiratorially, as if about to spill a major secret. "You also know that I need to tell James," he whispered.

Raisa paled. "I swear, Sirius Black if you dare tell him then I'll-,"

"You'll what?" he cut her off with a purposefully chauvinistic wink; annoying her was just too much fun to resist sometimes.

What Raisa did next, however, was enough to completely disarm him...

It was meant to be more of a practical distraction than anything else, in the sense that if she could close off the air supply to Sirius' mouth then Lily would be in the clear and so free to continue enjoying her fake date with James Potter who she claimed to hate.

Somewhere along the line it became more than a practicality though. Somewhere along the line she began to enjoy the feeling of his lips against hers. Somewhere in the midst of the fuzzy chasm that her mind had now become she even began to warm to the feeling of being so completely connected to another human being.

* * *

James was dazzled...there was no other way of describing the way the ground seemed to spin beneath his feet when he looked at Ivy and the way that all thoughts of Lily Evans were slowly vanishing into oblivion after just a few minutes in the company of the new and improved Ivy.

The pseudo-intense 'you are not worthy of me' act had been a little frightening to begin with, but once Ivy warmed up and let down her guard James was finding that he really enjoyed her company in a way he hadn't before. Maybe the fresh air made her less clingy and needy.

He tilted his head to the side, watching the vibrant pumpkin oranges, fire engine reds and yellow like the sun leaves of autumn fall to the ground gracefully. Ivy had kicked up kind of a fuss at first when he suggested taking a walk round Hogsmeade – surprisingly so in fact. She probably had her reasons though.

(James might have been a little shocked to find that her reasons included not wanting to leave the stupefied body of his girlfriend alone in the toilet for too long, but for now we'll leave that particular can of worms unopened.)

Small talk was progressing quite nicely too, in fact. Proudly, James had managed to find his way off the topic of hot beverages and was not quizzing Ivy about family...

"Do you have a sister?"

Lily grimaced, as was the norm whenever an image of the devil-child Petunia forced its way into her brain.

"She's called Pet-," All too late she realised her mistake. Of course Potter knew who her sister was. You practically stalk someone for five years then of course you know every single little thing about them.

She glanced over at James, who was frowning absently. "What did you say she was called? Because I know someone who-?"

Thinking fast Lily placed a hand across the brow in the manner of a romantic heroine and fell to the floor. The use of 'fell' being appropriate here because, unlike most romantic heroes, James' tiny little brain refused to process the fact that it would have been gentlemanly to catch her. Instead she ended up sprawled very painfully on the ground, trying very hard not to think about how many people's dogs had relieved themselves in the very same patch.

"Why didn't you catch me, idiot," Lily snapped from her position lying in a bed of autumn leaves.

She hated autumn leaves because the colours of the foliage clashed horribly with her hair.

...Not anymore though! ...

Despite herself Lily grinned, this grinning soon turning into a fully fledged and throaty laugh.

James looked bemused still. "You have a sister called Pet? Aaaggh!!"

The scream came here as Lily rolled her eyes and with her free foot pulled James down to join her on the ground.

"Anyone ever told you that you scream like a girl?" She smiled affectionately, turning her head slightly to face the dishevelled guy now lying next to her.

This felt right. This felt so right that Lily knew in any other circumstances it should scare her. For now though she just wanted to enjoy the company of this guy who had been chasing her for so long and somehow block out the fact that this moment was quite probably the closest she was going to get to James Potter for a very long time.

"What?" she giggled, noticing said James Potter staring at her intently. Lily shifted in her pile of leaves, feeling oddly subconscious under his gaze.

...What James did next was enough to disarm her completely...

He was moving towards her face, eyes seemingly trained on her mouth. Lily parted her lips subconsciously, eyes half closed, ready and prepared for what she was sure would be a defining moment in her life.

As it turned out though, this defining moment consisted of a half hearted peck on the cheek and a call for her to race him back to the tea shop to collect Sirius.

* * *

_Somewhere along the line it became more than a practicality though. Somewhere along the line she began to enjoy the feeling of his lips against hers. Somewhere in the midst of the fuzzy chasm that her mind had now become she even began to warm to the feeling of being so completely connected to another human being. _

_Much later on the line she finally twigged that he wasn't kissing her back..._

* * *

Yep, men were a funny, funny species.

* * *

**WHOOPIE!! I've got my mojo back!!**

**So, once again I have to apologise for the abomination that was the last chapter. It seems to have given me a kick up the backside though because this came pretty quickly and it about four times as long. Also, next up I plan on trying my hand at the generic 'full moon night'. Hopefully though I can manage to but my own inimitable slant on it though :) Please read and review, let me know you guys are still out there and stuff.**

**NEXT CHAPTER!!**

_**Lily jumped back in shock:**_

"_**Potter, please tell me that's ketchup and not blood."**_


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing here apart from Raisa Ramsey.

**First off, thanks so much to all you guys who reviewed last chapter – the response was incredible : )**

**Chapter 14**

You know how in the days leading up to their periods women get really, really grouchy?

You know the way that every single tiny little thing that goes wrong in the course of their day is purposely put there to annoy the living crap out of them?

Well, in the days leading up to the full moon this was exactly what Remus Lupin had to endure – only, the way he saw it, his predicament was a million times worse because boys were much less understanding than girls and 'hormones' was a pathetic excuse for a guy to use to explain away his temper.

At that particular moment he was sitting in the Common Room, staring venomously at the roaring fire and trying to ignore the ominous feeling that it was all too quiet –

He suspected that this type of worrying was similar to what plagued parents to such a degree that they could never fully relax.

Also, as a fully paid up member of the Marauders, Remus was well aware that in times of excessive quiet it tended to be the case that bad things were planned.

Anyway try as he might Remus now found himself incapable of sitting still, torn between worrying about what James and Sirius could be planning that required no noise and why they were keeping him out of the loop.

Remus stormed up into their dormitory, oddly excited as he realised that now he had an excuse to take out his anger on people.

"Okay, what the hell do you need me to fix this time?" he snarled.

James and Sirius looked up from their respective positions staring out the window and sulking in bed, visibly shocked.

Suitably cowed by their expressions Remus continued a little more calmly: "If you would please tell me what the matter is then I would be, erm, very grateful."

The two conflicted friends eyed each other warily – James because he wanted to be the first to spill to Remus without seeming too self absorbed and Sirius, because he resented being yelled at for no conceivable reason.

"I feel like I'm cheating on Lily," James took several attempts to finally be able to phrase this sentence, and said it in the manner of someone trying not to vomit.

Remus sat down on his bed with a dull thud. It seemed as though the next episode of 'The James and Sirius Show' was in full swing and, like most behind the scenes crew, he was never going to get the credit he deserved.

"James, I think we've established pretty firmly that you _are not_, _have not_, and _will never be_ dating Lily Evans," he managed to spit out.

Remus realised that 'The James and Sirius Show' – coupled with the currently absent Peter - went some way towards helping him through his lunar transformations, but right now he was rapidly reaching the end of his tether with the pair of absolute drama queens he called friends.

"Well?" Remus growled.

"You're mean when you have PLT, Moony," James pouted.

Remus cringed.

"He may be mean," Sirius now spoke up from his position by the window, fixing Remus with a pointed stare, "but he's right."

James nodded with a sigh. "I know I'm not dating her but today when I was about to kiss Ivy..." here he trailed off, realising that the discussion was beginning to turn into something resembling a slumber party.

"...All you could see was her face, looking up at you, and with no idea why you were doing what you were doing," Sirius cut in softly.

"Yes," James nodded enthusiastically. "I know that there's no chance of us ever being together, but I just can't bring myself to move on."

Remus clapped his hands in delight at one problem addressed and now turned his attention to the still sulking Sirius.

Sirius stayed silent, bound by the rather annoying fact that no one in the room apart from him knew about Raisa and Lily's little stunt with the Polyjuice Potion. 'Raisa kissed me and I couldn't kiss her back' didn't really hold much water when James knew he had been with Beatrice all day. He knew that his loyalty should be to his friends, but with all he had put her through today he felt he owed Raisa at least some of her dignity back.

"Sirius?" Remus probed, slightly more sympathetically this time. He knew that a silent Sirius was dangerous and he was worried for his friend – silent Sirius brooded, turning his problems over and over in his head and watched as they turned into huge and unmanageable snarling beasts.

Speaking of huge and unmanageable snarling beasts... Remus quivered briefly.

"It's not about that stupid prophecy again, is it?" James sighed, put out that his problems were no longer the focus for discussion.

"Oh come on Padfoot, you know Trelawney's nuts," he continued, taking Sirius' lack of verbal communication to mean that he was indeed sulking about this.

Remus frowned. "Just out of interest, who have you fallen in love with anyway?"

Sirius stared out of the window vacantly, as the conversation around him slowly wended his way back to a solution for James' problem.

Love? He hadn't asked to fall in love and he certainly did not want this great and noble gift that nature had deigned to bestow on him.

Raisa Ramsey was too good for him – he knew it and he would soon make her see it too...

* * *

"Will one of you please tell me what's going on?" Alice sighed into her soup.

Alice had had a very nice time at Hogsmeade with Frank, but now the madness was setting in again. She didn't like soap operas at the best of times and, now, at the worst of times did not liking one bit having to live in one -

Lily was not talking to Raisa and snapping at everyone else, whilst Raisa was not talking to anyone and being worryingly quiet.

"Oh for God's sake cheer up," Lily snapped, her need to yell at someone finally outweighing her desire not to talk to Raisa.

Alice turned back to the scene in front her with a sigh. It looked like Herbology homework tonight would be out of the question for her.

"Everything is always about you, isn't it?" Raisa snapped back into life here. "Oh Raisa, help me!" she adopted a shamelessly mocking tone here. "Potter is moving on with his life and I can't have that - everyone on the entire planet needs to be constantly thinking about me."

Lily glared. "Well you're the one who seems so certain that we should be together."

"You made me drink Polyjuice Potion," Raisa countered. It didn't follow the natural flow of the argument but she really didn't care.

This was all Lily's fault.

It was all Lily's fault that she had made an arse of herself with Sirius - with Black.

Alice choked on her soup. "Polyjuice Potion?"

"Ssshhh!" Raisa put a finger to her lips savagely. "We have to keep quiet about that – it would never do for precious Lily-kins to get into trouble."

"Right, you little-" Lily reared up in her seat and lunged at Raisa, fork in hand.

Raisa's eyes widened as one of the best duellers in the school dove towards her, seemingly about to stab her in the head with a fork.

"Chick fight!" called out a slightly unwise onlooker, ducking as a fork came flying in his direction.

At this point Alice finally decided that she needed friends who appreciated her. Appreciation, as in not scaring her half to death with impromptu duelling matches. Frank appreciated her. Frank would protect her.

* * *

It had reached that time at night when normal people were sound asleep in bed.

Normal...

Lily snorted to herself derisively. Who wanted to be normal anyway? What was this great fascination that people has with being exactly like everyone else?

The portrait hole crashed open and Lily jumped out of her seat in surprise, quite excited at the thought of being able to use her Prefect privileges and punish someone. Since her first ever detention that evening she was feeling as though she was now perched on the wrong side of the scales of justice and so it was now time to redress the balance.

She hoped it was Black. She hadn't punished Black in a really long time.

Doubt (self or otherwise) was not something she was at all used to and, accordingly, Lily was willing to dump her feelings of inadequacy on the first available target.

She -

Potter. It was Potter.

Lily watched aghast as James Potter stumbled through the portrait hole, seemingly doubled up in pain and clutching his arm as if his life depended on it.

"Please tell me that that's ketchup and not blood," she breathed, knowing that whatever James had got himself involved in this time was more than just an asinine prank.

He looked stunned to see her – too stunned to notice the footstool blocking his way forward. Consequently he tripped over a footstool and ended up sprawled at her feet.

In some ways James had always been sprawled at her feet.

* * *

He hissed as soft fingers touched his wounds.

"I can't tell you how this happened," James muttered ashamedly, pre-empting her next question.

There had been moments in his life when he would gladly have given her the world, would gladly have told her his whole life story three times over for one simple glance or smile. But now there was more at stake than just him.

"Can't because you won't, James?" Lily replied softly, the tenderness in her words surprising even herself...

...This was different though -

This guy sitting opposite her was different from the Potter who used to spend his every waking moment annoying the hell out of her.

This guy was James: the hopeless romantic who wore his heart on his sleeve. She had seen glimpses of it on their fake date and now she was more painfully aware than ever that he could have been the best thing that had never happened to her.

Wordlessly she moved her hand towards a small but angry mark on the side of his temple.

"Now that I got from my date today," James winced sheepishly. "We were having a good time and then on her way out of the toilet she clocks me one."

Lily winced sheepishly here on realising that the transitions from real Ivy to fake Ivy and back to real Ivy were not something she had thought through. Yeah, real Ivy was bound to be pissed on finding out her date had gone off and left her in a toilet.

"I loved you so much," James murmured, the words spilling out of his mouth before he could hold them back. Now that he had the (ex) object of his desire in such close proximity to him it was as though everything that he had kept pent up for so long was flooding out in a torrent of raw, repressed emotion.

Lily drew back, head spinning: "What?"

He swallowed thickly, shaking his head hurriedly.

...Sudden remembrances of the events of the last hour were gradually returning to his brain...

"I'm sorry, I have to go back and check on the others," he murmured, half to himself.

"Other what?" Lily replied warily.

"Remus," James blurted out desperately.

"Remus? Is he okay?" Lily stood up with a start and began to make for the portrait hole, despite having no idea where she was actually going.

Still wincing in pain, James dragged her back and placed two calming hands on Lily's shoulders and tried to smile reassuringly.

"Lily, I promise you that everything will be alright," he began. "You just have to promise me that you will stay in the Common Room until morning, alright?"

He looked to catch her eye but she was still reticent. James here brought up two shaking hands to tilt her face towards his. "Do you trust me Lily?"

"Yes," she whispered, still attempting to compose herself, sparks flying all through her body at his gentle touch.

Biting back the urge to ask 'really?' James nodded quickly before sprinting his way out of the Common Room, leaving Lily Evans submerged in a whole world of confusion.

* * *

_The greasy piece of notepaper fluttered from her pillow and slowly fell to the ground, almost out of sight._

...Someone very close to you has been betraying you. Potter had help from the inside for all those years and you never knew. Don't be a mug anymore Lily. Someone very close to you has been betraying you. Flush them out before it is too late...

* * *

**Wow! This was a mega long chapter that never seemed to end. Hope this is okay for you guys and as always, read and review once done ;)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: **Yet again I don't own anything here apart from Raisa Ramsey

**Chapter 15**

_...She could still feel the imprint of his hands on her shoulder..._

Lily Evans was bothered by a great many things in life. Rather shockingly, being called a mug by an anonymous note was one of them.

_...He wasn't that bad - not really..._

She let out an explosive sigh – it was as though the entire world was insulting her, a thousand sneering and unfeeling eyes were judging her.

Any normal person might question the reasoning behind being so incredibly incensed by a scruffy piece of notepaper. However Lily was not any normal person and she was very sensitive right now when it came to matters concerning James Potter.

Dammit! Lily smacked her forehead. She had been trying her absolute hardest to forget that the bespectacled one even existed. Evidently someone up above was punishing her, because this small task was proving impossible.

_...His grin was infectious, the way it was half crooked -..._

A warm hand touched her shoulder and Lily screamed, practically falling backwards into a suit of armour...

The smiling boy with the crooked grin offered his hand to Lily and pulled her up with a flourish:

"James Potter at your service,"

To her horror Lily found her cheeks undertaking a gradual metamorphosis into a violent shade of red.

She backed away, brushing herself off warily: "Potter is not a substitute for Bond here, is it?"

James stifled a laugh. "Would that make you my M then? He replied. Regular readers to this story may remember that Lily Evans tended to have a short fuse when it came to possible sexual innuendo emitting from the Potter mouth. Accordingly James winced and assumed his usual defence strategy when it came to angry women (one hand outstretched and one covering his gonads).

Lily, however, found herself rooted to the spot. A disturbing thought had just occurred to her on the subject of the greasy letter.

James frowned, confused as to why he was not being physically attacked by the (former) love of his life. Delighted, of course, but still confused.

"Lily? Are you alright?" He waved a palm in front of her dazed face.

"I have to...I have to..." With that vague and nonsensical half-explanation the red head backed away from the scene, almost tripping over her own feet in her haste to leave behind this alien boy who made her blush.

James shook his head multiple times in confusion and was about to make his way to Transfiguration before he noticed a scrap of parchment that had evidently fallen out of Lily's robe pocket. Oh well, he would give it back to her in Transfiguration.

He frowned on inspecting the wrinkled and greasy underside of the paper – it sure as hell didn't look like anything Lily would conceivably use to write on, neat freak that she was.

James' curiosity was piqued. Well it couldn't do any harm to read it, could it? ...


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: **Yet again I don't own anything here apart from Raisa Ramsey

**Chapter 16**

"You terrible friend,"

Raisa blinked at this unpleasant greeting, nonplussed. Lily Evans was nothing if not original in her reasoning behind rage and therefore Raisa probably had managed to anger her friend in some way, however small.

"I saved you a seat, honey," Raisa beamed, attempting to diffuse the tension with some rays of sunshine.

"You betrayed me," Lily snorted, to round sniggering by the rest of the class, who had now pulled up chairs to watch this rather entertaining spectacle. In Gryffindor folklore the red headed one had taken on the status of a natural phenomenon and, accordingly, was always really fun to watch.

(Unnoticed by the heathen mob, an ashen faced James Potter slipped into the back of the room.)

"What are you talking about?" Raisa's heart jumped to her throat. Did Lily know she had been conspiring with James?

"You've been conspiring with Potter," Lily stood glaring at her friend, hands on hips.

...So that was a resounding 'yes' then...

Rai opened her mouth, and then shut it again abruptly, realising that silence was probably the best policy here. Silence would keep her out of any more trouble. Hopefully.

"It's really not her fault," James entered the fray here, feeling somehow responsible for Raisa's current predicament. This sympathy was to prove short-lived when the broom cupboard incident came to light.

Lily whirled round to face the usual object of all her pent up rage, but found herself falling short of everything she wanted to say. She was looking into James Potter's eyes and acting like...like such a girl!

"Come on," James continued, oblivious to the pointed glares from Remus and Sirius that were begging him not to get in the middle of an impending cat-fight. "Are you really going to fall out with each other over me?"

Lily giggled nervously and then clapped a hand over her mouth in horror. Lily Evans did not giggle – it was so demeaning. For some reason James Potter's close proximity was unnerving her and causing her to make decisions way out of character.

"Ha!" Raisa exclaimed, pointing triumphantly at her friend. "You like James!"

At this Lily and James whirled round to face each other – James shocked and Lily annoyed with herself for being so transparent.

"Forgive her?" James broached pleadingly, tactfully choosing to ignore Raisa's comments for the moment.

Lily sighed and turned to Raisa. "Well at least you didn't go as far as pushing us into a broom cupboard."

Raisa immediately turned away here, sheepish. Oh, this was not going to be pretty.

"Oh. My. God," Lily's mouth fell open and she seemed on the verge of hyperventilating.

"But you haven't heard my side of the story," Raisa protested feebly.

The audience was gasping appreciatively. This was way better than Transfiguration. Of course, McGonagall the Dragon was going to turn up soon and spoil their fun, but until then it was party time!

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US?" the combined weight of Lily and James' anger pressed down on Raisa and she cowered, wondering why it was that people with good intentions always came to bad ends.

Sirius stood up sharply, reacting to Raisa's discomfort. "Will you guys just lay off her," he snapped.

"You knew too?!" James stared at Sirius, appalled.

Remus and Peter stared agog, No one ever deigned it necessary to tell them anything, it seemed.

Sirius winced. "That's straying from the point, don't you think?"

"True," James nodded, before turning back to Raisa. "You stupefied me,"

"You pushed me into a confined space – with him!" Lily continued, although a strange and very perverse part of her inner being was actually enjoying fighting on the same side of an argument as James – for once.

"Polyjuice," Raisa blurted out, disguising it badly behind a fake cough.

Lily gasped. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, try me," she bit back.

"Raisa, are you sure you want to...?" Sirius began.

"Oh, I'm sure," she glared at him. Sirius had avoided her like the proverbial plague since the unreciprocated kissing in the tea shop, and as such had negated any right he might have had to an opinion.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" James frowned. It felt like the discussion was moving over his head and it was making him uncomfortable.

Raisa took one last look at Lily, the death-glare directed her way being enough to convince her to continue speaking. Besides

Deep breath... "Lily sabotaged your date by drinking Polyjuice Potion and taking Ivy's place," Raisa proclaimed.

Her job done she dipped down to grab her school bag and promptly stormed out of the classroom. She hated conflict at the best of times, but at the worst it was necessary. Call it self defence...

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," James ran a hand through his messy dark hair.

Lily gulped and in her mind's eye imagined gutting Raisa.

"Is this true Padfoot?" James turned to his friend with a curt smile. "Since you seem to know absolutely everything about everything."

Sirius, however, was more focused on the retreating back of Raisa and was soon out the door after her.

"Well that's just great," James snapped, leaning against a desk in resignation. "You don't want to date me, yet I can't date anyone else."

Lily cringed. When he put it like that it did sound unreasonable.

"Call it payback," she replied.

"Payback? Payback for what exactly?" James snapped, gradually losing his cool with the realisation that Lily Evans was going to haunt his life forever, something like the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future all put together.

"Do you want a list?" Lily scoffed. Oh, she could talk for hours on the subject of all James had put her through during her Hogwarts years.

"No, I want an explanation," James replied.

The class gasped, rather like with a cliff-hanger at the end of a particularly juicy Eastenders episode. Only they didn't have to wait until next week for continuation of the story.

"Were you jealous?" James asked, quietly this time.

Lily's heart skipped a beat. "No way in hell."

"So did you just feel like experimenting with Polyjuice Potion then?" James continued.

"I was _not_ jealous," Lily repeated, more to herself than the room at large.

"Ivy hit me because of you," James replied accusatorily, attempting to progress the discussion on from Lily's tiresome repetition.

"Oh poor baby," Lily's voice dripping with sarcasm. "Why don't you go pick up another random girl from the corridors and ask her to kiss it better."

James glared. "Well at least I'm not afraid to let myself fall in love."

At this statement Lily reeled as though she had been slapped. "Shut up."

"I will not."

"Shut up,"

"No."

"Yes."

"No"

The other members of the class began to tune out here as the argument degenerated into playground tactics...

Remus stood up respectfully here and attempted to interject and make himself heard over the noise. "Could you please... Please could you two..." No luck.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE JUST STOP," Remus yelled, before bowing his head sheepishly at the silence that followed. "You're making Peter cry ..." he trailed off.

James mouthed a 'sorry' in Wormtail's direction and turned back to Lily, quieter and calmer this time.

"I'm over you, Lily Evans,"

"You wish." Lily scoffed yet again. The adrenaline rush that came with arguing was making her light headed and inclined to say glib things.

A major adrenaline overload was the only way to explain too what James did next. The irrational part of his brain maybe thought that by locking lips with Lily he could prove he was over her, whereas the rational part (that he normally never listened to) was screaming at him that no one ever got over the love of their life.

Either way, wantonly removing his glasses and throwing them to the floor James advanced on Lily, grabbed her in his arms, dipped her back and kissed her soundly on the lips.

...Only when his lips were fused to hers did he realise that the rational part of his brain was absolutely correct...

Professor McGonagall walked into her classroom. She was then tempted to walk straight out again.

Teaching was supposed to be easy. No such luck with her sixth years.

* * *

**This might be all I get round to posting tonight so I'll stick the author's note here. Apologies for the two week gap between updates - I was trying to write and nothing was coming out write, you know the feeling? Anyway, the chapter sizes seem to have shrunk, but at least I'm getting it out there, right? Next up, Rai and Sirius have it out. I'll try and get that out soon. Please read and review and hopefully next chapter will be out fairly quick. :)  
**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: **Yet again I don't own anything here apart from Raisa Ramsey

**Chapter 17**

The guilt crashed down in waves over Raisa as she began to realise the full significance of what she had done. That is: systematically destroyed any chance of Lily and James ever being together, made Lily hate her, made James hate her, yelled at Sirius, made an idiot of herself in front of lots and lots of people, and quite probably obtained a detention from McGonagall for skipping lessons.

Oh, this was not good.

So, Raisa did what all sensible people did when it seemed like the weight of the world was on their shoulders – she began pacing violently up and down the small stretch of courtyard she occupied, hoping that somehow the moving air created by her actions would cause a rip in the space/time continuum and give her the chance to go back in time and make amends.

No such luck. All she managed in doing was creating a cold breeze that chilled her to the bone.

Raisa was not someone who generally liked conflict and so, the fact that she was almost entirely responsible for this particular incident was making the situation doubly worse and oh my god what was she going to do?!

Seemingly out of nowhere a pair of strong arms enveloped her, putting a temporary end to her pacing. Raisa relaxed into this anonymous comfort, before immediately beginning to struggle and thrash around in his grasp when she realised the arms belonged to Sirius.

Sensing that if he didn't let go soon then he would possibly lose some vital parts of his anatomy Sirius loosened his grasp on Raisa, causing her to fall to the ground with an uncomfortable thump. It was a good thing that first years were in lessons – it was never a good thing to corrupt small people with bad language.

"You okay?" Sirius broached tentatively.

Raisa let out a loud harrumph as she pulled herself up from the floor, clutching her wrist. "Yeah Sirius, I'm great," she snapped sarcastically.

A little harsh considering that Sirius had gone out of his way to check that she was okay? Somehow Raisa was not feeling very forgiving considering that

He moved towards her. "Let me look at your wrist."

Raisa backed away. "What am I? Jack the Ripper?" Sirius huffed. "Come on Rai – we need to talk."

She glared. "Okay, so you want to talk? Am I really so hideous that you couldn't bear to kiss me?"

Sirius winced. Selfish though it may sound, he had hoped that Raisa's embarrassment was such that she would steer clear of that particular issue. He opened and closed his mouth several times, attempting to find a suitable way of phrasing what he wanted to say, before settling on something straight from the heart: " You're gorgeous – inside and out."

Raisa's breath caught in her throat and she stared at him, touched to the core by his words. On an impulse she moved again towards his lips. Once again Sirius staggered back, contorting his head to stay clear of hers. It took all of Sirius' self control to pull himself away from Rai, but he knew it had to be done.

He sighed: "You don't want to kiss me. What you want is something to take your mind off of Lily,"

Raisa rolled her eyes. Like most self-respecting teenagers she did not like having her feelings dictated to her. Besides, he was only half right.

The muscles in Sirius' neck tightened imperceptibly as he saw of the look of undisguised hurt on her face. They stood, face inch from face, breathing heavily.

"You know what your problem is, Sirius Black?" Raisa said incredulously, biting back the urge to scream at him.

"Your problem is," she continued, relishing the uncomfortable look on his face. ",is that you're a coward."

All of a sudden his lips crashed against hers, fierce and insistent and they both found themselves lost in a moment that seemed to belong to the two of them alone.

But abruptly Sirius slowly pulled himself away...

"I'm so sorry," he murmured, before kissing Raisa softly on the forehead and leaving her standing alone and confused in the courtyard.

Maybe he was a coward. Or maybe he just got a kick out of breaking hearts. Either way Sirius Black's heart was a closed book – it was better that way ... it was safer that way...

* * *

**Hope this is okay for you guys. It's a little bit (or a lot) short, but I'm going for short and frequent (hopefully!) in terms of updates. I had to do what I did here, because if I resolved the Raisa/Sirius thing right away then it would screw up my sequel plans ... that is if anyone would be interested in reading the next part!? Anyway, please review and next chap perhaps up by end of this week. :)  
**

* * *


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: **Yet again I don't own anything here apart from Raisa Ramsey

**I know I said I would post until the end of the week, but you know when you hear a song for the first time and it just moves something inside of you? Yes? No? Do I sounds nuts?! Anyway, it moved me and made me feel like writing, so here's the next chapter.**

**Chapter 18**

"So let me get this straight," Alice sighed. "Lily is not talking to Raisa because she went talked to James behind her back, Raisa is not talking to Lily because she got way over the top mad, James is not talking to Lily because he feels awkward about kissing her and she switched places with Ivy and ruined his date, and James is also not talking to Raisa because she stupefied him and dumped him in a cupboard."

Remus weighed the exasperated girl's words up in his mind and reluctantly nodded his head. "That's about the sum of it."

Alice ran a tired hand through her hair. Because of the - what now seemed hugely misfortunate - fact that she shared a dormitory with both Lily and Raisa, Alice had got no sleep last night.

Like most people Alice not only liked sleep, but also needed it in order to function properly. When she didn't get sleep she got cranky. ...Or she would have got cranky if Lily had let her get a word in edgeways.

"So what do we do?" Alice asked, looking to Remus as one might look at the fountain of all wisdom.

Remus smiled kindly at his small, tired friend. "I rather think that people meddling in the lives of others is what caused this mess to begin with. What do we do? We just have to sit back and let James, Lily and Raisa sort this one out for themselves."

She nodded, knowing that he was right, but adding: "She's being way too hard on Raisa though."

"I know," Remus agreed. "It's one of life's great mysteries why good people always seem to get the raw end of the deal."

The pair of them sat and contemplated this philosophical tit-bit for a few moments...

"You want to nap?" Remus inquired, patting his shoulder in invitation. "We've still got half an hour of the study period and I'll wake you up at the end."

Alice smiled at Remus and settled down into the crook of his arm, ready to catch up on some much needed shut-eye. There were only so many times that you could hear from one best friend that your other best friend was a lying, no good little traitor without feeling the need to escape for a while.

"Who knows?" Remus mused. "Maybe that kiss in Transfiguration will turn out to be the first of many for Lily and James...They would definitely be thanking Raisa then –"

Alice sat up with a start. "WHAT?"

Naturally, Professor McGonagall encouraged all those under her wing in Gryffindor to take Transfiguration for their N.E.W.T.s instead of Herbology.

Added benefits to this course of action included: not having to traipse out to the greenhouses in the dead of winter and being around to witness your best friend kissing her supposedly worst enemy.

* * *

... In a dark corner of a castle full of people they find each other...

Lips meet hungrily and leave both of them wanting more...

They are the only two people in a world of technicolour and he wishes it could last forever. This is all he has ever wanted for five and a half years and he wishes to God that it could last a lifetime.

She's holding back and he knows it. She's holding back and it hurts.

He wants a lifetime but she only deals in minutes.

It's in her nature and he can't hate help but hate her for it.

He loves her so much, but deep down he knows that stolen kisses and the odd half-moment in a dusty corner will never be enough for him. He suspects that she knows it too, but can't bring herself to admit it.

She's opening up...gradually, slowly...but maybe this is all she'll ever be able to give him. He wants more; he wants a life with this girl.

So what if it's a cliché? - He wants the 2.4 children and the white picket fence, but he wants it with her. The kissing is amazing, naturally, but he'd trade it in without a second thought for a piece of her heart that she keeps locked so tightly away...

Of course he's not over her. He'll never be over her and his feelings haven't changed. So what is he doing? What is he doing throwing his life away on someone who is too scared to love him back?

"Sweetheart," he begins, swallowing thickly. "You need to work out what you want. If you want me then great, but if you don't then I need to know. I'll give you time to decide, but I can't wait around forever."

With one last stroke of her soft red hair he leaves her standing in her dusty little corner with cold comfort from a suit of armour.

He doesn't look back.

Why should he look back at someone who can still barely being herself to look at him?

He's done.

Now it's up to her.

* * *

**I have an excuse for the cliffhanger this time though because the story is about three chapters away from being done and I'm aiming for dramatic!**

** Last line here is key - Lily needs to be the one to fight for James so he doesn't feel like it's one way traffic...**

**Please review ****:)**** I've been feeling pretty rough this week but I pushed out this chap especially for you guys! **

* * *


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: **Yet again I don't own anything here apart from Raisa Ramsey

Sorry for the slow updates. Summer seems to have brought out the worst in my propensity to get ill. Anyway, today is a day for celebrating and this is my personal celebration! Enjoy!!

Hopefully this will be a suitable return to humour for those who requested it last chapter... First bit's a little introspective again but the Raisa/Peter interaction should (hopefully) be good for a laugh

(Please review when done!) 

**Chapter 19 **

No one told Lily Evans what to do. She took advice from no one, even going so far as to ignore perfectly good advice on the simple principle that someone else had given it to her.

So, all things considered, James was way out of line.

He was way, way, way out of line. He was so far out of line that you couldn't even see the line from where he was standing.

Work out what she wanted? Lily knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted to be able to go one single hour, minute, second even without having a the inanely grinning face of James sodding Potter flashing through her head like one those neon signs on the outside of bars.

The bleachers on the Quidditch field were cold and uncomfortable and Lily couldn't help but feel this was some kind of horrible retribution for how she had treated James over the years –

A small part of her had always been shocked that as of yet there had been no fall-out from the continual yelling and throwing heavy objects at the bespectacled one. Evidently whosoever controlled the whole 'what goes around comes around' principle was out to get her.

Everyone was out to get her. Even her best friend was getting in on the act.

Lily believed fervently in this theory, mostly because it was the most convenient way of explaining away the fact that she experienced a warm, tingly feeling every time she thought about James Potter. Incidentally Lily had taken great pains to outline this very theory to Alice over breakfast. Alice of course, who saw the best in everyone and so was trying to convince her to forgive Raisa, thought it was simply an excuse to extricate herself from the possibility of a relationship with James Potter.

Maybe she was right. She let out a huff at the unfairness of it all. ...She missed the way that she used to be so certain about everything and she missed the way that everything in her life used to have a place...

"A little birdie told me that you kissed James Potter..."

Dammit. Lily stiffened as the dulcet tones of one Sirius Black drifted into hearing.

"Sod off, Black," she snapped, not being in the mood to deal with someone who held such strong links to James Potter.

"So it's true?" he inquired casually, moving in to sit opposite her.

Lily's gut reaction was to scream out an ear-piercing "NO!" Then she remembered that it was true.

Sirius grinned. "You finally succumbed then?"

Lily made to hit him but his damn boy reflexes were too fast. Looking slightly hurt that someone would dare to deface his model-like features Sirius moved out of arms reach and now 

perched on a row of bleachers above Lily – this way he could continue pissing her off whilst avoiding being attacked.

(Shockingly James never seemed to have discovered the merits of the above technique).

"Prongs really isn't that bad," Sirius continued, suddenly feeling very protective of his friend. Granted, when he wanted to be James was one of the single most annoying people on the planet, but in Sirius' eyes he was the only one who had the right to point that out.

"If you get to know him then you just might like him," he affirmed. Then a list of all the pain-in-the-backside things that James had done over the past five years came pushing their way to the front of his brain and Sirius began to regret opening his mouth.

Lily stared at him, slightly aghast that yet another person seemed intent on ramming it down her throat that James Potter was a 'Decent Guy.' Did they not think she had eyes? She was a perfectly good judge of character and not wanting a relationship with James Potter did not immediately need to be written off as a character flaw.

She glared at Sirius: "You sound exactly like Raisa."

At the mention of the very girl he had spent all week ducking into empty classrooms and assorted topiary in order to hide from, Sirius' eyes widened.

He cleared his throat several times, trying to gauge whether he could control the tremor in his voice. "Have you talked to her recently?" -

Just because he didn't have the guts to handle talking to her did not mean he wanted her to be miserable.

The red head scoffed at this feeble question. She had noticed his sudden chance in demeanour when she brought up the Meddling One and was enjoying seeing him squirm for once:

"Have _you_?" Lily replied, sensing the answer before he spoke.

"Touché," Sirius murmured, nodding his head in approval. He had never been on great terms with Lily Evans – for some odd reason she was under the (misguided) impression that he was a bad influence of James – but he did respect the fact that she was whip-smart, very quick and had a refreshingly blunt sense of humour.

"I know it's none of my business..." he began, before pausing and gazing into the distance at the fog covering the trees of the Forbidden Forest.

"But..." Lily prompted sharply. Somehow she knew that she would not like one bit what Sirius had to say. _But_, then again when had she ever liked anything emitting from Black's large and far too loose pie-hole.

"It just...it seems to me like you could both use a friend right now," Sirius finished with a sigh. It made him feel more than a little sick inside to think of her having to go through what he had dumped on her alone. He knew that Remus and Alice were looking out for her.

"Just think of it as one less person you have to be mad at," he finished, winking at Lily and starting to make his way down the bleachers for dinner.

Lily, however, was frowning. "What did you do to Raisa?"

Sirius stopped in his tracks. "Come again?"

Lily stood up abruptly. "Raisa apparently needs a friend, so what would make you say that?"

Sirius gulped.

"If you have mentally or physically hurt her in anyway Sirius Black, then I swear that I will hunt you down, castrate you, kill you and then kill you again," Lily threatened evenly with a murderous glint in her eyes.

Sirius winced, but was strangely glad that news of his bad behaviour towards Raisa had not travelled. He was fairly sure that Lily would not be able to carry out her threat, but oddly enough he didn't want to take a chance on it.

"You're not angry with Raisa," he declared. "Not really."

Lily nodded mutely, a little taken aback by the vehemence of her unconscious desire to protect Raisa.

"Are you angry with James," Sirius inquired softly, in the manner that one would to a reticent child.

Lily hesitated here but again shook her head. She shook it slowly this time, as though she now renewed understanding of her feelings. Logically speaking blinding rage equated to hate, and she didn't hate James...not really. He frustrated her not end, but that was just about different.

(...If there was anyone she hated in this whole scenario it was herself...)

"Talk to one of them, please," he sighed. Damn was mediating tiring. Sirius resolved to be much more appreciative of Remus in the future – he now had renewed respect for his abnormally large-brained friend.

"You want to come down with me for dinner?" Sirius asked, holding out an arm to help her off the bleachers.

"Dinner would be great," she replied with a small smile – her first real smile in a long time.

* * *

Peter Pettigrew munched on his carrots happily: it wasn't often that he had a pretty girl join him for dinner.

He imagined that this was how Padfoot and Prongs felt every day. For some reason girls just seemed to flock around them, almost like geese. Peter liked geese.

Of course had he been more perceptive the goose-lover may have noticed that his dinner companion looked utterly miserable. As it was, Peter Pettigrew had zero powers of perception.

Besides, it was winter vegetable night at dinner... Peter loved winter vegetables with an unabashed passion that worried his fellow Marauders greatly.

"Did you know that carrots help you to see in the dark?" he remarked conversationally, feeling as though the yawning gap in conversation required filling.

"What?" Raisa looked up from her malaise distractedly. She had absolutely no problem with Peter Pettigrew and found him for the most part to be a fairly okay guy, if a little painfully idiotic at times. However, her frazzled mind had just tried to convince her that Peter had attempted to start a conversation with her about vegetables.

"What?" Raisa repeated as she looked at the small boy in shock.

"Carrots," Peter affirmed, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "Did you know that they help you to see in the dark?"

Sadly Raisa did not have time to reply to this veritable pearl of wisdom as at that moment Lily Evans and Sirius Black walked into the Great Hall and seemed to be coming in her direction.

Raisa's breath caught in her throat. So, after consistently avoiding her for a whole week they had finally decided to stop being cowards...

Thinking on her feet Raisa turned again to Peter who was lost in the magical world of vegetables. No way in hell was she going to make this easy for them. Admittedly James was still not thrilled with her, but at least he was honest and open about it. She disliked being subjected to his hangdog expression, but it was better than no expression at all. She would not give Lily and Sirius the satisfaction of knowing that they had driven her to eat dinner with Peter Pettigrew.

"Quick, Peter!" Raisa hissed, leaning across the table towards the bewildered Gryffindor. "Pretend that I've said something interesting!"

Peter frowned, winter vegetable suspended on his fork - half way between mouth and plate. Truth be told, he was now rather confused. Raisa had barely said a word to him all through the meal and now she wanted to play funny games with him.

...Maybe this was like that 'women being from another planet' thing that Padfoot always moaned about -

Peter felt a sudden rush of pride at being about to join the same metaphorical club as the great Sirius Black.

"Peter," snapped Raisa, now thoroughly peeved that he seemed to have adopted the 'James Potter-like' trait of staring off into space and grinning inanely. She wondered if this was a token trait of all Marauders.

"I love carrots," Peter murmured happily.

Just as Raisa was about to contemplate the logistics of strangling Peter using a particularly long and stringy winter vegetable, there came a polite cough from behind her.

"Pete, can I borrow you for a second?" Sirius interjected tactfully, choosing to pointedly avoid all eye contact with Raisa.

Without giving the Wormtailed One any choice in the matter Sirius proceeded to drag him away from the table by his collar, after stopping for one final moment by Lily:

"It's up to you now darling," he whispered.

Lily gulped sat down next to Raisa with a soft thud. "Having fun with Peter?" she asked, not unkindly, but simply as a way of starting the conversation.

"...Having fun with Sirius?" Raisa replied hesitantly. She was baffled to say the least. Lily was apparently attempting an apology, which was a first for the flame haired girl. She was also consorting with Sirius, which must mean that someone had given her a covert lobotomy.

Lily took a deep breath, opened her mouth and closed it again. Her planned apology was sticking in her throat, but she knew she needed to do something in order to save this friendship. Sirius was right; Raisa was one less person to be mad at.

Also this was good practice for what she knew would soon have to be faced with James, and –

Lily paused here for a second in her runaway train of thoughts, turning to Raisa with a frown:

"Were you and Peter just having a conversation about carrots?"

Raisa was about to bite back with suitably cutting reply, before realising the absurdity of Lily's question out of context. She let out an un-lady like snort of laughter, causing Lily soon to follow. They say laughter is infectious and soon Lily and Raisa were doubled over in hysterics, the laughter proving the perfect tonic to all the anger of the previous few days.

The girls caught eyes and turned to each other, all the anger draining away.

Lily bumped thighs with her friend affectionately. She took a deep breath and decided to voice the words that had been playing on her mind for a while now...:

"I think I'm in love with James Potter,"

* * *

Haven't actually read this through because I wanted to keep my promise and get this up today. I will read it at some point though and correct mistakes.

This comes out at 9 pages on Word, so I think I deserve some kudos for a super long chapter!!

Please review and if you want info on how fast the next update will be then I'm sticking the info on my profile as and when I work it out. : )


	21. Chapter 21

**.Disclaimer: **Yet again I don't own anything here apart from Raisa Ramsey

**Chapter 20**

James was missing Lily.

To most people this might seem a somewhat odd assertion given that to all intents and purposes he recently dumped the girl, but it was true all the same. It was almost like getting rid of your nose, in that you take it for granted as something that will always be there and then it isn't and you realise that you can't smell things anymore.

He opened his mouth, lips quivering and made to address the room at large once more: "-"

"For God's sake James, if you ask me more time whether you did the right thing then I swear I'll smack you one," Sirius snapped, sitting on his bed Indian-style.

"Shut up," muttered James mutinously. He knew that Sirius was also going through some weird girl related issues, but if he was so adamant that he did not want to discuss them then the least he could do was have the decency to give James the floor and moan to his heart's content.

"If you don't mind me asking though..." Sirius began, attempting to pose delicately the question that had been on his lips for the last three and a half hours. "Why did you dump her?"

"I was being adult about the situation," James protested. Although, having spent every waking moment turning the situation over and over in his mind, he was beginning to think that maybe 'adult' had not been the best way to go.

Due to really not wanting to talk about his feelings James instead decided to throw a pillow at Sirius, only to miss and fatally injured a favourite lampshade of Remus'.

"Bugger off, Padfoot." James glowered. "And you're going to replace that lampshade."

"I'd almost forgotten how mean you were when you were miserable," remarked Sirius dryly.

James inclined his head tartly and surveyed Sirius: "So Padfoot, how are things going with Raisa?"

At this unwanted intrusion into his personal life, Sirius abruptly jumped up from his bed and left the room.

Yup – nothing shut a man up like turning the tables on him.

He frowned. Although Sirius was now off his back, James was now alone. He didn't like being alone ...funnily enough thin air was not nearly as receptive to his words as regular people.

Luckily for James, at that moment the door swung open to reveal the tiny form of one Raisa Ramsey...

"TAKE COVER - MAYBE SHE'S ARMED!" yelled James with bloodcurdling intensity, immediately swan-diving under his bed. James then realised that bar the object of his irrational fear, no one else was in the room. What he basically looked like was a big pansy of a guy scared stiff of a tiny and sheepish looking girl.

"Jamsie, can we talk?" Raisa inquired hesitantly, wondering briefly why the hell he had jumped under his bed as soon as she had entered the room. Was she really that intimidating? Well, Sirius bloody Black seemed to think so given that he had sprinted down the dorm stairs just now and completely blanked her. Raisa glared.

A forlorn head popped out from under the bed: "I'm not scared of you."

Trying to fight back images of her seven year old brother hiding under his bed afraid of monsters in the dark, Raisa made her way over to James' bed and sat down warily. (The 'warily' here inserted because in all honesty you never quite knew what you might find sitting on the bed of a Boy.)

"Come on James," Raisa began. "Do you want to come and sit with me?" she questioned softly, patting the empty space on the bed next to her.

Forlornly the disembodied head nodded. Not that he wanted to sit with the girl who stupefied him and then bodily assaulted him, of course. James was simply beginning to realise that under no circumstances is it ever a good idea to dive under your own bed...

Raisa smiled affectionately, happy that she now had her role back: "Tell me everything..."

James lit up like a very large Christmas tree. He loved an audience...

* * *

_He had to tell her..._

_She would either not believe him or completely freak out, but he had to tell her all the same. _

_It was not fair that it had to be like this, but then again life wasn't fair._

_He had to tell her..._

* * *

"Really? So you'll actually come down with me and talk to her?" Raisa frowned; a little shocked that she can actually managed to achieve what she set out to.

James nodded, still a little dazed from Raisa's words.

"She loves me," he spluttered, bemused in the extreme but happy. For the first time in a long time he was happy.

James trudged off down the stairs and Raisa made to follow him. However, she quickly found herself dragged into a dark and murky corner by some unknown force.

She gasped on coming face to face with Sirius Black, who looked tormented...if that was even possible.

"What the hell do YOU want?"

He cut her off with a searing kiss.

"There's a prophecy..." he murmured the words slow and soft, not desperate to broadcast them to the Gryffindor Tower at large.

Raisa would have scoffed at this statement were it not for the look of utter seriousness (forgive the pun) in his eyes.

He continued - the cadence of his voice almost hypnotic... "I fall in love with a girl, I lose her."

She stared at him, by now half convinced that maybe he was telling the truth.

..."I can't be with you because I have to protect you."

Finally done presenting her with surprising and shocking information Sirius stepped back, as if to say 'there you have it'. Raisa knew he was expecting her to respond but in truth she had no idea what to say to him, much less any idea what he actually wanted to hear.

"You love me?" she eventually managed to trip out, the words feeling heavy on her tongue.

"I...I...Look Rai, I think you've misunderstood the point here," Sirius stuttered.

"Well what is the point?" Raisa snapped, now aware of the fact that she had left Lily and James alone in the Common Room together. If she was going to be responsible for finally getting them together then the least to expect was to be around to see the resolution.

Talking round in circles with Sirius Black was really not very high on her list of things that she wanted to be doing right now.

"The point is that I _can't_ love you," Sirius affirmed, reaching out a hand to caress Raisa's cheek, attempting to let her down gently.

He didn't expect the sharp slap to his wrist and the even harder knee connecting with his man parts.

"Good luck with that then sweetie," Raisa called overly jauntily as she sped down the stairs, desperate to put as much distance as possible between herself and the only guy to ever say he loved her...

* * *

**Sorry for the wait between chapters, I've been a bit out of the loop with my writing recently. It's not really an excuse though, so I'm just really sorry I'm so disorganised with my writing at the mo...Please forgive me!  
**

**(...and Please review! ) **

;)

* * *


	22. Chapter 22

**.Disclaimer: **Yet again I don't own anything here apart from Raisa Ramsey

**Chapter 21**

Raisa's hand hurt, her knee hurt and her head hurt. Listening to a wildly hysterical James Potter was now beginning to make her ears hurt too.

"Lily? Lily? LILY?!" he called frantically, checking behind dusty curtains and under tables, under the mistaken impression that the red head was compact enough to fit into really tiny spaces.

Technically Raisa should have been at least a little more worried about the fact that her friend seemed to have vanished into thin air, however Sirius Black had put pay that. '

Let's chalk that up as one more thing to hate him for,' her inner conscience screamed, attempting to forget that Sirius Black apparently loved her.

...He loved her...

"LILY, WHERE ARE YOU?" James continued, impervious to the simple fact that there really was no one else in the room and the one person who was present in the Common Room was very near to hitting him.

What prophecy anyway? She didn't remember ever hearing anything about a prophecy involving Sirius Black. Professor Trelawney came up with junk like that all the time but Sirius really didn't seem the type to pay attention to the ravings of lunatics.

Raisa felt as though her head was going to explode imminently.

"Oh for God's sake James," Raisa exclaimed. "I think we've established that she's NOT IN THE BLOODY COMMON ROOM."

More than a little abashed at Raisa's mini Vesuvius moment, James quietened down, before letting out a sulky: "Well where is she then?"

The pair of them gazed out of the window at the thick, dark rain clouds.

"You don't think...?" Raisa began, hesitantly, now slightly concerned for her friend.

James was out the door before she had time to continue.

* * *

Lily had earlier decided that what she really wanted to do was go for a walk. Having to confront James Potter with the information that he was right all along and they really were meant to be together was strangely enough not high on her list of things she really wanted to do. It was one thing talking about telling James the truth with Raisa, but quite another to actually hit him with it face to face.

So, Lily had done something that did not happen a lot to persons of the Evans stock - she had lost her bottle.

However, after losing her bottle she had not discovered a long concealed ability to predict the weather. She hadn't expected the rain...

* * *

It was pretty easy to know where to look for her - funnily enough not many (sane) people often went for walks in the middle of massive bursts of rain.

Nearing on the small figure huddling under a tree in a doomed attempt to keep dry, James decided on a calm and measured approach by which to address the love of his life who - if Raisa was to be belived - loved him back.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?" he blurted out.

A little affronted at being soaking wet and having someone yell at her, Lily looked up from trying to dry out her wand and let out a hesitant: "Going for a walk...?"

"A walk?" James spluttered, small droplets of water running off his glasses and falling down his cheeks. "In the rain? Are you out of your mind?"

"I'm touched - you came all the way out here just to yell at me," Lily deadpanned, her heart flip-flopping at the same time.

Why was he yelling at her? James Potter had never yelled at her ever in his life. Oh, God...now she was worried. Had he finally got over her?

James surveyed her affectionately, watching her face shift through a variety of emotions. Who was he kidding? As much as he hated to credit Sirius with anything, he had been right about this - he would never be able to stop loving Lily Evans.

He sat down on the ground with a wet squelch..."So you wanted to tell me something I hear?" James remarked nonchalontly, if that was even possible in the rain.

Lily swallowed and took a deep breath. "I love you."

"Sorry?" James cocked an ear towards her mock apologetically. "Didn't quite catch that."

"I SAID I LOVE YOU, YOU IDIOT," she screamed, laughing almost in relief at finally admitting what she had lately been beginning to think she had known all along.

James grinned broadly, now not even caring that he was soaked to the bone. "Well I guess that leaves just one question then..."

"..Will you go out with me?"

Lily grinned, nodding emphatically as his lips met hers.

She had always hated the rain but now she was looking forward to building some new memories with the one guy who had never given up on her.

James, for his part, resolved to hand custody of his 'Getting Over Lily Evans' list over to Sirius - maybe he could apply it to his current predicament with Raisa. James Potter sure as hell didn't need it anymore though.

"Do you think that maybe we need to go inside now?" Lily asked, struggling to make herself heard over the driving rain.

James considered this thought briefly, weighing it up in his mind. "Nah, it can wait," he replied with a shrug, before once again catching her lips in an all-consuming kiss.

...Yup, he could definitely get used to this!

* * *

**And so it ends!!**

**Hope this is okay for you guys. Am planning on some one shots to fill in some gaps in sixth year. Still don't know about a sequel yet but if I decide to do one it will focus on Rai/Sirius and resolve the issues there, but still with plenty of Lily/James too. **

**Thank you so much to everyone who has read and/or reviewed this story - the feedback has been unreal. The reviews have been amazing and I am really very grateful to everyone who has taken the time to tell me what they think, good or bad. **

**I'm gonna be going now! So look out for some one-shots some time soon and I'll let people know about any possible sequel in due course.**

**LonelyHeart ;)  
**

* * *


	23. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: **I definitely do not own these characters and everything is for the sake of entertainment only.

Just a little thank you for all the lovely reviews I got for the last two chapters ... ;)

**Getting Over You: Epilogue**

Madam Pomfrey was furious with them.

It was understandable, James mused as he lay huddled under the thin sheets on a lumpy mattress in Hogwarts' hospital wing. She had every right to be irate with two sixth years (who should have known better) using up her precious time and resources with self-induced illnesses.

Oh, about that? - Apparently sitting out in the pouring rain was a sure-fire ticket to ending up with a cold and fever. Joyful reunions in the rain always looked so sexy in the movies, but James Potter could officially attest to the fact that there was nothing less appealing than the aftermath...

As he lay huddled on the lumpy mattress of his bed for the night, he couldn't help but think it had all been worth it.

Aah, Lily Evans...Just a few hours ago he was kissing Lily Evans.

This was real and he could barely believe it. It seemed like only yesterday he was kissing the back of his hand and pretending it was her – something that, on reflection, Sirius had made him promise never to admit to anyone ever.

All of a sudden James felt a sudden and uncontrollable urge to talk to his future wife. It was the middle of the night and from what he gathered from Raisa she was cranky when woken up unwillingly but he still really, really wanted to talk to her.

"_Lily_," he hissed, whilst keeping a careful eye on the door to Madam Pomfrey's office. The aforementioned set great store by silence in her infirmary and was willing and ready to punish anyone who dared break that code.

"_Are you awake?"_ James continued, in a voice that he perceived as very quiet but that was in reality the complete opposite, due to the fact that he had shot to hell his sinuses and his ears were ringing.

"I am now," replied Lily wryly, sitting up in her bed across from his and pulling the duvet sheet around her for warmth.

She didn't mention that she had already been wide awake and dreaming shamelessly of him; it was important to keep intact some semblance of dignity.

James grinned: "_Good, because I really wanted to ACHOOO!-" _

"Cut it out," snapped a disgruntled, legitimately ill and now awake person from a nearby bed -

Lily and James exchanged sheepish glances, before James hit upon a brilliant idea that he had only ever enacted in his wildest and most secret dreams - to Lily's immense horror and embarrassment he hopped off of his bed and began to tip-toe his way slowly across to hers, jumping on top of it with flourish and another sneeze.

"How're you feeling, my love?"

Lily let out a sniffle and tried to ignore that having a Boy on her bed was more than slightly freaking her out.

"You see now, we can talk privately," James , inching his way over to her and pulling her closer to him.

She smiled : "No - talking sounds good..."

* * *

"James?" Lily began hesitantly.

"Hmm?"

"How can you ever forgive me for how appallingly I've treated you over the years?"

James stopped smoothing down her hair abruptly.

"You never did anything _that_ bad," he declared. "When you put it in context of poverty and Third World debt, yelling at me every so often really isn't that big of a deal."

"Anyway," he continued. "How could you possibly fall in love with an idiot like me?"

Lily paled, embarrassed at the thought of bearing so much of her soul but knowing that James needed to hear at least something in reply to assure him that first thing next morning she wouldn't go running back in the other direction. She took a deep breath and prepared to start peeling away at the many layers of protection and self-preservation she had painstakingly built up around herself over the years.

She grinned. "You see me for exactly who I am and you never gave up on me."

James had once told her that he was an 'all or nothing' guy and she was finally prepared to give him her all.

* * *

**I wasn't happy with how I ended it last chapter, so I figured a little epilogue was in order.  
**

**Everything else connected with the story will be posted in one-shots, but I figured this one should be with the rest of the story.**

**Next one-shots: Sirius-centric...Remus is mad with him and we find out the truth about the prophecy.**


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